€>30.73 

cop.TL 


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U.  S.  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE, 

OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS, 

A.  C.  TRUE,  Director. 


SOME  FEATURES  OF  RECENT  PROGRESS  IN 
AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 

BY 


xU  C.  TRUE, 


Director  of  Office  of  Experiment  Stations. 


[Reprint  from  Annual  Report  of  the  Office  of  Experiment  Stations  for 
the  year  ended  June  30,  1902.] 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/somefeaturesofreOOtrue 


630.73 
T76  so 


CONTENTS. 


Graduate  School  of  Agriculture 

The  science  of  agriculture 

Educational  values  of  courses  in  agriculture 

College  courses  in  agriculture 

Aims  and  scope 

Methods  of  instruction 

Equipment 

Description  of  departments 

Agronomy 

Animal  husbandry .w 

Dairy  husbandry 

Holticulture 

Household  science 

Veterinary  science 

Courses  offered 

Agricultural  course 

Agronomy 

Horticulture 

Animal  husbandry 

Dairy  husbandry 

Thremmatology 

Veterinary  science 

Secondary  education  in  agriculture 

Secondary  agricultural  education  in  Wisconsin 

Agricultural  courses  in  town  high  schools 

hi 


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ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Page. 

Plate  XLII.  Agricultural  education,  College  of  Agriculture,  University  of 

Illinois 438 

XLIII.  Fig.  1. — Agricultural  education,  new  main  building  of  the  Mara- 
thon County  School  of  Agriculture  and  Domestic  Economy. 

Fig.  2. — Agricultural  education,  new  main  building  of  the 
Dunn  County  School  of  Agriculture  and  Domestic  Economy. . 450 


IV 


SOME  FEATURES  OF  RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL 

EDUCATION. 

By  A.  C.  True,  Director  of  Office  of  Experiment  Stations. 

The  past  }rear  has  been  a notable  one  in  the  history  of  the  move- 
ment for  definite  education  in  the  science  and  practice  of  agriculture 
in  the  United  States.  Along  almost  all  lines  of  agricultural  education 
there  has  been  unusuall}7  rapid  progress;  but  especially  in  the  differ- 
entiation of  different  grades  of  instruction  in  agricultural  branches 
and  in  the  organization  of  separate  courses  and  institutions  to  meet 
the  needs  of  students  of  different  ages  and  attainments  has  there  been 
remarkable  activity.  In  this  article  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
show  some  of  the  main  features  of  this  advancement  and  to  illustrate 
them  by  concrete  examples  of  institutions  successfully  organized  on  a 
new  and  progressive  basis. 

GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF  AGRICULTURE. 

A new  enterprise  in  agricultural  education  has  been  inaugurated  by 
the  establishment  of  the  Graduate  School  of  Agriculture,  which  held 
a four  weeks’  session  during  the  month  of  July,  1902,  at  the  Ohio  State 
University,  Columbus,  Ohio.  The  plan  for  this  school  was  originated 
by  Prof.  Thomas  F.  Hunt,  dean  of  the  College  of  Agriculture  and 
Domestic  Science  of  the  Ohio  State  University,  the  purpose  being  to 
establish  a school  for  advanced  students  of  agriculture  at  which  lead- 
ing teachers  and  investigators  of  the  agricultural  colleges  and  experi- 
ment stations  and  this  Department  should  present  in  some  regular  way 
summaries  of  the  recent  progress  of  agricultural  science,  illustrate 
improved  methods  of  teaching  agricultural  subjects,  and  afford  a some- 
what extended  opportunity  for  the  discussion  of  live  topics  drawn  from 
the  rapidly  advancing  science  of  agriculture.  This  idea  received  the 
cordial  approval  of  President  Thompson,  of  the  Ohio  State  University, 
and  on  the  recommendations  of  these  two  men  the  board  of  trustees  of 
the  university  voted  to  establish  such  a school  and  generously  made 
provision  for  the  financial  support  of  its  first  session. 

The  Association  of  American  Agricultural  Colleges  and  Experiment 
Stations  at  its  convention  in  1901  favored  the  plan  for  the  school  and 
voted  that  if  the  success  of  the  first  session  seemed  to  justify  its  con- 
tinuance, it  be  made  a cooperative  enterprise  under  the  control  of  the 
S.  Doc.  10T 27  417 


418 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


association.  The  Secretary  of  Agriculture  also  expressed  his  cordial 
approval  of  this  movement,  and  on  his  advice  the  Director  of  the  Office 
of  Experiment  Stations  consented  to  act  as  dean  and  other  officers  of 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  to  be  members  of  its  faculty.  Under 
these  favorable  auspices  there  was  little  difficulty  in  securing  a strong 
faculty.  As  actually  organized  this  included  35  men,  of  whom  26  are 
professors  in  agricultural  colleges,  T are  leading  officers  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  and  2 are  officers  of  the  New  York  State  Experi- 
ment Station.  Courses  were  offered  in  agronomy,  zootechny,  dairy- 
ing, and  breeding  of  plants  and  animals.  The  school  was  housed  in 
the  substantial  and  well-equipped  agricultural  building  of  the  Ohio 
State  University,  where  were  illustrated  the  most  improved  apparatus 
of  instruction  in  soil  physics,  dairying,  and  other  agricultural  sub- 
jects. Besides  the  live  stock  of  the  university  farm,  leading  breeders 
of  Ohio  furnished  choice  animals  for  the  stock-judging  exercises. 

General  problems  of  agricultural  science  and  pedagogy  were  dis- 
cussed at  the  inaugural  exercises  and  at  Saturda}^  morning  conferences. 
Among  the  topics  thus  treated  were  the  history  of  agricultural  educa- 
tion and  research  in  the  United  States;  the  organization  of  agricultural 
education  in  colleges,  secondary  schools,  nature-study  courses,  corre- 
spondence courses,  farmers’  institutes,  and  various  forms  of  university 
extension;  what  constitutes  a science  of  agriculture;  and  methods  and 
value  of  cooperative  experiments.  Through  social  assemblies,  visits 
to  typical  Ohio  farms,  and  much  informal  discussion  whenever  the 
students  met  each  other,  the  educational  influences  of  the  school  were 
greatly  extended.  Sevent}^-five  students  were  in  attendance.  These 
were  drawn  from  28  States  and  Territories,  including  such  widely 
separated  regions  as  Maine,  Oregon,  California,  New  Mexico,  and 
Alabama.  There  was  one  student  from  Canada  and  one  from  Argen- 
tina. There  was  also  one  woman,  and  the  colored  race  was  represented 
by  teachers  from  the  Tuskegee  Institute  and  the  North  Carolina  Agri- 
cultural College.  Twenty-seven  of  the  students  are  professors  or 
assistant  professors  of  agriculture  in  agricultural  colleges,  31  are 
assistants  in  the  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment  stations,  9 are 
recent  college  graduates,  and  8 are  engaged  in  farming. 

Considering  the  character  of  the  faculty  and  students,  it  goes  with- 
out saying  that  the  whole  period  of  the  session  was  occupied  with  the 
most  earnest  and  profitable  work.  Without  doubt  the  influence  of 
this  school  will  be  felt  throughout  the  country  in  the  improvement  of 
courses  of  instruction  in  agriculture  and  the  strengthening  of  the  lines 
and  methods  of  investigation  of  agricultural  subjects.  In  other  ways 
the  school  will  exert  a beneficial  influence.  So  rapid  has  been  the 
accumulation  of  materials  for  a real  science  of  agriculture  during  the 
past  few  years  that  even  professional  students  of  agriculture  have  not 
realized  how  large  a mass  of  knowledge  is  already  available  for  mold- 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


419 


ing  into  a systematic  body  of  truth  which  may  be  utilized  for  peda- 
gogic purposes,  as  well  as  for  inductions  of  scientific  and  practical 
value.  The  summaries  given  by  the  experts  gathered  at  this  graduate 
school  have  emphasized  this  fact  and  shown  in  a striking  manner  that 
agricultural  education  and  research  may  now  be  properly  and  effi- 
ciently organized  with  reference  to  the  science  of  agriculture  itself 
rather  than  be,  as  heretofore,  very  largely  a matter  of  the  sciences 
related  to  agriculture.  This  will  serve  to  stimulate  greatly  the  move- 
ment already  begun  for  the  reduction  of  materials  of  agricultural 
science  to  “ pedagogic  form”  for  use  in  colleges  and  secondary  schools, 
and  for  the  reorganization  of  agricultural  institutions  of  research  on 
the  basis  of  the  divisions  and  subdivisions  of  agriculture,  instead  of 
physics,  chemistry,  botany,  and  other  primary  and  secondary  sciences. 
The  day  will  thus  be  hastened  when  the  science  of  agriculture  will 
rank  with  such  tertiary  sciences  as  geology,  geography,  and  medicine 
as  one  of  the  great  systems  of  knowledge  of  direct  benefit  to  mankind. 

The  objects  and  aims  of  this  school  were  explained  by  the  dean  in 
an  address  at  the  inaugural  exercises,  from  which  the  following  para- 
graphs are  taken: 

Our  system  of  agricultural  education  and  research,  which  vitally 
affects  the  progress  of  our  vast  agricultural  interests,  has  developed 
very  rapidly,  its  effective  organization  covering  only  about  one-quarter 
of  a century.  Especially  within  the  last  decade  there  has  been  a 
remarkable  development  in  the  amount  and  variety  of  agricultural 
research,  in  the  methods  of  agricultural  education,  and  in  the  financial 
resources  of  the  institutions  for  agricultural  education  and  research. 
This  has  led  to  rapid  changes  in  the  organization  and  work  of  these 
institutions,  and  in  the  requirements  of  training  and  experience  which 
are  considered  essential  to  the  success  of  agricultural  teachers  and 
investigators.  The  demand  for  work  on  these  teachers  and  investi- 
gators has  also  rapidly  increased  in  variety  and  amount.  Under  the 
existing  organization  of  our  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment  sta- 
tions the  workers  must  very  often  be  both  teachers  and  investigators. 

•Very  few  of  our  agricultural  colleges  are  as  yet  able  to  do  more 
than  give  their  students  an  undergraduate  course  in  agricultural  sub- 
jects, and  in  a considerable  number  of  those  institutions  even  the 
courses  which  lead  to  a bachelor’s  degree  are  not  yet  raised  to  the 
standard  set  by  our  older  and  stronger  colleges.  We  are  just  passing 
out  of  the  era  when  boards  of  trustees  considered  that  they  had  done 
enough  for  agriculture  as  a part  of  the  college  curriculum  by  having  on 
the  faculty  one  man  whom  they  denominated  a professor  of  agricul 
ture.  Considerable  progress  has  of  late  been  made  in  the  division  of 
the  general  subject  of  agriculture  into  branches  and  specialties  to  be 
taught  by  different  members  of  college  faculties,  and  a few  of  our 
stronger  universities  and  colleges  have  advanced  sufficiently  in  this 


420 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


direction  to  have  established  what  in  some  real  sense  may  be  called  an 
agricultural  facult}T.  But  it  is  still  true  that  the  opportunities  for 
thorough  training  in  agricultural  science,  such  as  is  given  in  other 
sciences  and  in  preparation  for  the  old  learned  professions,  are  inade- 
quate. If  this  school  does  nothing  more  than  to  illustrate  in  some 
measure  what  ma}T  be  done  in  the  differentiation  of  agricultural  sub- 
jects and  the  development  of  agricultural  faculties  for  university 
instruction  in  agriculture  it  will  have  served  a useful  purpose. 

In  considering  the  work  of  such  a school  as  this  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  regular  college  course  in  agriculture,  however  well 
planned  and  conducted,  can  do  little  more  than  give  the  student  gen- 
eral instruction  in  the  principles  of  agriculture.  It  will  not  ordinarily 
make  him  an  expert  in  any  one  line.  There  is  a need  of  higher  instruc- 
tion in  the  different  branches  of  agricultural  sciences  in  order  that  we 
may  have  thoroughly  trained  agricultural  specialists  and  experts.  We 
can  not  hope  to  attain  and  maintain  leadership  in  the  application  of 
science  to  agriculture  without  university  instruction  in  agricultural 
science.  The  agricultural  schools  and  colleges  ma}T  give  sufficient 
training  to  fit  men  to  succeed  well  as  farmers,  farm  managers,  teachers 
of  the  general  science  of  agriculture,  and  editors  of  agricultural  jour- 
nals. But  the  graduates  of  these  institutions  attempting  to  do  high- 
grade  teaching  or  investigating  must  have  some  further  means  of  secur- 
ing the  thorough  and  special  training  the}7  require.  One  aim  of  this 
graduate  school  is  to  provide  a certain  measure  of  this  advanced  and 
special  instruction  and  thereby  to  illustrate  some  of  the  lines  along 
which  our  universities  need  to  establish  advanced  courses  of  instruc- 
tion in  agricultural  specialties.  The  response  which  has  been  made  to 
the  call  for  teachers  and  students  to  organize  this  school  is  a good 
indication  of  the  general  widespread  feeling  among  the  men  already 
engaged  in  the  work  of  instruction  and  research  in  agriculture  in  this 
country  that  there  is  a real  need  for  deeper  and  wider  instruction  in 
agricultural  science. 

The  need  of  a larger  number  of  men  and  women  well  trained  in 
agricultural  science  and  familiar  with  the  most  approved  methods  of 
agricultural  practice  is  keenly  felt  in  various  directions.  Not  only  is 
the  present  supply  of  competent  workers  in  these  lines  inadequate  to 
meet  the  enlarged  demand  for  professors  and  investigators  in  our  agri- 
cultural colleges,  experiment  stations,  and  departments  of  agriculture, 
but  the  spread  of  agricultural  instruction  into  secondary  schools  of 
agriculture  and  into  our  public  high  schools  is  greatly  hindered  because 
teachers  trained  in  agricultural  subjects  are  lacking. 

The  comparatively  few  men  well  trained  for  service  in  agricultural 
institutions,  farmers’  institutes,  and,  generally  speaking,  in  the  cause 
of  agricultural  advancement  on  rational  and  scientific  lines  are  badly 
overworked  at  present.  We  must  have  more  workers  of  the  right 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


421 


kind  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  vanguard  of  agricultural  progress,  and 
it  is  hoped  that  this  school  will  do  something  to  find  and  train  recruits 
for  this  honorable  service. 

The  cause  of  agricultural  education  and  research  is  developing  under 
peculiar  conditions.  Popular  interest  in  this  matter  is  already  so  great 
that  demands  are  made  upon  the  workers  in  our  colleges  and  stations 
far  beyond  their  ability  to  meet.  At  the  same  time  through  their  own 
efforts,  and  those  of  workers  in  kindred  institutions  at  home  and 
abroad,  the  materials  for  a true  science  of  agriculture  are  accumulat- 
ing faster  than  they  are  being  reduced  to  a systematic  form.  While 
it  is  true  that  within  the  past  few  }Tears  there  has  been  an  unusual 
amount  of  activity  in  book  writing  on  subjects  pertaining  to  agricul- 
tural science  and  practice,  yet  there  remain  many  agricultural  sub- 
jects on  which  there  are  no  treatises  that  can  be  considered  fairly  up 
to  date.  Moreover,  books  of  reference,  including  dictionaries  and 
encyclopedias,  have  not  kept  up  with  the  advance  of  knowledge  along 
agricultural  lines,  though  within  the  past  few  years  the  makers  of 
such  works  have  made  hopeful  progress  in  this  direction.  In  man}r 
lines  of  agricultural  education  and  research  the  methods  of  instruction 
and  investigation  have  not  been  thoroughly  proved,  and  the  apparatus 
and  illustrative  material  needed  in  agricultural  laboratories,  schools, 
and  colleges  are  as  yet  ver}r  inadequate. 

This  school  may  therefore  serve  a very  useful  purpose  in  bringing 
to  its  students  summaries  of  up-to-date  information  on  various  agri- 
cultural subjects,  and  in  pointing  out  ways  in  which  the  methods  of 
teaching  and  investigating  agricultural  subjects  may  be  improved  and 
the  apparatus  and  illustrative  material  for  instruction  and  research  in 
these  subjects  may  be  increased  in  variety  and  effectiveness. 

Like  other  great  progressive  movements  of  our  day,  the  cause  of 
agricultural  education  and  research  needs  systematic  promotion  in  two 
directions.  Well-defined  plans  are  needed  for  the  development  of  our 
institutions  for  agricultural  education  and  research  to  meet  the 
enlarged  demands  of  our  people  for  information  and  training  in  these 
lines.  We  do  well,  therefore,  to  bring  the  workers  in  our  agricultural 
institutions  together  to  discuss  the  organization  and  development  of 
our  s}"stem  of  agricultural  education  and  research.  But  there  is  also 
required  a more  thorough  discussion  of  the  methods  of  instruction 
and  research  in  agriculture.  It  is  true  that  we  already  have  some 
means  for  carrying  on  general  discussion  in  both  these  directions. 
The  Department  of  Agriculture,  especially  through  its  Office  of 
Experiment  Stations,  has  acted  as  a center  for  the  collection  and  dis- 
semination of  information  regarding  the  organization  of  agricultural 
education  and  research  and  methods  of  teaching  and  investigation. 
The  Association  of  American  Agricultural  Colleges  and  Experiment 
Stations  has  also  served  a most  useful  purpose  in  both  these  lines  of 


422 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


endeavor.  It  has,  however,  been  felt  by  mam^  of  the  managers  and 
workers  in  our  agricultural  institutions  that  neither  the  dissemination 
of  publications  nor  the  brief  meetings  of  the  Association  of  Colleges 
and  Stations  sufficiently  met  the  need  for  a center  of  discussion  for 
these  general  problems.  For  this  reason  the  proposition  for  the 
establishment  of  this  Graduate  School  of  Agriculture  met  with  much 
favor  among  the  general  officers  of  our  institutions  for  agricultural 
education  and  research  as  well  as  among  the  workers  in  these  institip 
tions.  Though  the  period  during  which  the  sessions  of  this  school 
can  be  held  is  necessarily  brief,  it  nevertheless  gives  a much  longer 
time  for  the  discussion  of  these  problems  than  is  afforded  by  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Association  of  Colleges  and  Stations.  By  bringing  together 
here  for  a month  a considerable  number  of  our  leading  agricultural 
teachers  and  investigators  in  these  lines  and  a select  body  of  the  more 
recent  graduates  of  our  agricultural  colleges  who  are  just  entering  or 
about  to  enter  on  the  work  of  teaching  and  investigation,  it  is  believed 
that  we  have  a more  efficient  opportunity  for  live  discussion  of  up-to- 
date  problems  of  agricultural  education  and  research  than  has  hitherto 
existed. 

Through  the  generous  liberality  of  the  trustees  and  officers  of  the 
Ohio  State  University,  the  broad-minded  approval  of  the  honorable 
Secretary  of  Agriculture,  and  the  cordial  cooperation  of  the  Associa- 
tion of  American  Agricultural  Colleges  and  Experiment  Stations  it 
has  been  possible  to  put  this  enterprise  on  an  efficient  basis,  and  the 
school  therefore  begins  its  sessions  under  most  favorable  auspices. 
Considering  the  character  of  its  faculty  and  students  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  entire  session  of  the  school  will  be  filled  with 
the  most  earnest  teaching  and  the  most  thorough  discussion  of  the 
subjects  included  in  the  course.  In  an  unusual  measure  we  believe 
this  school  will  furnish  inspiration  and  up-to-date  knowledge  to  workers 
in  our  agricultural  institutions,  gathered  out  of  many  States  and  Ter- 
ritories; but  beyond  this,  we  believe  that  in  its  ultimate  results  this 
school  will  greatly  aid  in  the  formation  of  public  opinion  in  favor  of 
the  more  thorough  and  rational  organization  of  agricultural  education 
and  research  in  the  United  States. 

The  school  will  aim  to  solidify  and  amplify  the  organization  of  edu- 
cation and  research  in  agricultural  subjects  on  the  basis  of  agriculture 
itself,  considered  as  both  a science  and  an  art.  It  will  seek  on  the  one 
hand  to  help  on  the  movement  for  grouping  the  results  of  investiga- 
tion in  many  scientific  lines  into  a fairly  well-defined  body  of  knowledge, 
to  be  known  as  the  science  of  agriculture,  comparable  with  such  sci- 
ences as  geology,  geography,  and  medicine,  and  on  the  other  hand  to 
quicken  and  broaden  the  movement  for  the  direct  application  of  science 
in  manifold  ways  to  the  art  of  agriculture.  While  we  expect  to  pur- 
sue our  work  with  high  standards  of  scientific  and  pedagogical  effort, 
we  wjll  not  fora  moment  lose  sight  of  the  farmer  and  the  requirements 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


423 


of  practical  agriculture.  All  our  labor  will  be  counted  as  in  vain  if  it 
does  not  issue  sooner  or  later  in  the  growing  of  plants  and  animals 
better  adapted  to  the  uses  of  men  and  the  evolution  of  a system  of 
farming  in  which  the  financial  returns  shall  be  more  satisfactory  to  the 
intelligent  and  thrifty  farmers,  and  under  which  the  general  level  of 
intelligence,  comfort,  and  upright  and  harmonious  living  of  our  rural 
population  shall  be  perceptibly  and  increasingly  raised. 

We  believe  that  the  wide  movement  for  the  establishment  of  agri- 
cultural schools,  colleges,  experiment  stations,  and  departments  of 
agriculture,  from  which  already  such  important  results  have  come,  has 
in  it  vast  potentialities  not  only  for  the  bettering  of  the  financial  and 
other  material  conditions  of  the  rural  population,  but  also,  and  far 
more,  for  their  intellectual  and  moral  quickening.  Wherever  there  is 
a definite  movement  by  which  men  pursue  systematic  and  long-con- 
tinued investigations  along  the  line  of  any  industry,  whether  in  the 
realm  of  administration,  invention,  or  science,  with  the  result  that  the 
organization,  processes,  and  appliance  of  that  industry  are  changed  in 
the  direction  of  more  thorough  system  and  greater  complexit}\  there 
follows  necessarily  higher  intellectual  activity  and  a more  elevated 
morality  in  the  mass  of  workers  in  that  industry. 

Our  aim,  therefore,  is  a high  one  and  our  inspiration  to  the  most 
strenuous  effort  in  the  few  weeks  in  which  we  are  assembled  in  this 
school  is  a lofty  one.  We  seek  to  lay  the  lines  and  set  the  pace  by 
which  the  workers  in  the  cause  of  agricultural  education  and  research 
in  every  State  and  Territory  of  this  Union  and  in  the  most  distant 
island  over  which  our  flag  floats  shall  march  to  the  conquest  of  new 
facts  and  principles  which  may  be  utilized  for  the  advancement  of 
agricultural  practice  and  the  more  efficient  instruction  of  the  farmer 
and  his  children  along  agricultural  lines. 

Papers  on  the  science  of  agriculture  and  the  educational  values  of 
courses  in  agriculture  were  read  at  this  school  by  its  dean,  the  sub- 
stance of  which  is  given  below: 

THE  SCIENCE  OF  AGRICULTURE. 

In  order  to  make  an  intelligent  and  correct  answer  to  the  question 
whether  there  is  a science  of  agriculture,  we  must  first  clearly  under- 
stand what  is  meant  by  the  terms  u science”  and  44  a science.”  For  this 
purpose  we  may  fairly  appeal  to  books  of  reference  in  common  use 
which  have  been  brought  reasonably  well  up  to  date,  so  that  they  may 
be  taken  as  expressing  the  consensus  of  scholars  on  this  subject  in  our 
day.  I ask  your  attention,  therefore,  first  to  the  definition  of  science 
given  in  Johnson’s  Encyclopedia,  revised  edition: 

Science. — In  a general  sense,  knowledge  reduced  to  order;  that  is,  knowledge  so 
classified  and  arranged  as  to  be  easily  remembered,  readily  referred  to,  and  advan- 
tageously applied.  All  science  is  based  on  the  assumption  that  the  laws  of  nature 


424 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


are  immutable.  From  this  point  of  view  science  may  be  regarded  as  a knowledge  of 
the  laws  of  nature,  embracing  the  process  of  experiment,  observation,  and  compari- 
son, by  which  they  are  discovered,  and  the  modes  of  reasoning  by  which  their  oper- 
ation in  the  production  of  phenomena  is  made  known.  Hence  most  widely  it  signifies 
the  knowledge  of  a truth  in  relation  to  other  truths. 

Next  let  us  examine  the  definitions  of  “science”  and  “a  science” 
given  in  the  Standard  Dictionary: 

Science. — (1)  Knowledge  gained  and  verified  by  exact  observation  and  correct 
thinking,  especially  as  methodically  formulated  and  arranged  in  a rational  system; 
also,  the  sum  of  universal  knowledge. 

Science  in  the  wide  sense  includes  (1)  science  proper , embracing  (a)  exact  knowl- 
edge of  facts  (historical  or  empirical  science),  (6)  exact  knowledge  of  laws,  obtained 
by  correlating  facts  (nomological  science),  and  (c)  exact  knowledge  of  proximate 
causes  (rational  science) ; and  (2)  philosophy.  In  the  narrow  sense  of  positive  science 
the  word  is  used  as  including  only  the  first  two  divisions  of  science  proper. 

A Science. — (2)  Any  department  of  knowledge  in  which  the  results  of  investiga- 
tion have  been  worked  out  and  systematized;  an  exact  and  systematic  statement  of 
knowledge  concerning  some  subject  or  group  of  subjects;  especially-  a system  of 
ascertained  facts  and  principles  covering  and  attempting  to  give  adequate  expression 
to  a great  natural  group  or  division  of  knowledge,  as  the  sciences  of  astronomy, 
botany,  chemistry,  and  medicine;  the  science  of  theology. 

We  may,  then,  have  a “Science  of  Agriculture,”  provided  there  is 
a body  of  knowledge  about  agriculture  which  has  been  “ gained  and 
verified  by  exact  observation  and  correct  thinking,”  and  “in  which 
the  results  of  investigation  have  been  worked  out  and  systematized.” 

This  science  should  embrace  (a)  an  exact  knowledge  of  facts  and 
(b)  an  exact  knowledge  of  laws,  obtained  by  correlating  facts. 

But  there  are  different  kinds  of  facts  and  laws,  and  in  order  to  see 
what  is  the  real  character  of  the  Science  of  Agriculture  and  its  rela- 
tion to  other  sciences  it  will  be  well  to  make  at  least  a rough  classifi- 
cation of  sciences. 

There  are,  first,  the  mathematical  and  physical  sciences,  which  deal 
with  the  facts  and  laws  of  number  and  space  and  the  properties  of 
matter  The  mathematical  sciences  are  algebra,  arithmetic,  and 
geometry.  The  physical  sciences,  considered  as  the  sciences  which 
treat  of  dead  matter,  or  of  energy  apart  from  vitality,  are  astronomy, 
mechanics,  physics,  and  chemistry. 

These  sciences  which  deal  with  the  ultimate  constitution  of  matter 
may  for  our  purpose  be  termed  Primary  Sciences. 

Some  may  also  consider  biology,  as  the  science  of  life  or  living 
organisms,  as  a primary  science;  but  as  a matter  of  fact,  we  study 
under  the  head  of  biology  very  largely  the  physics  and  chemistry 
of  the  matter  comprising  living  organisms,  so  that  biological  sciences 
are  really  complex  sciences  which  deal  not  so  much  with  the  ultimate 
constitution  of  matter  and  life  as  with  secondary  facts  and  phenomena 
as  revealed  in  living  organisms.  The}7  belong,  therefore,  to  what  may 
be  called  Secondary  Sciences. 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


425 


Thus  physiology  is  very  largely  the  physics  and  chemistry  of  the 
plant  or  animal,  as  mineralogy  is  the  physics  and  chemistry  of  min- 
erals. These  secondary  sciences  of  course  have  their  descriptive  side, 
under  which  the  objects  with  which  they  deal  are  described  and  classi- 
fied. Among  the  secondary  sciences  are  botany,  zoology,  physiologj", 
mineralogy,  etc. 

There  is  a third  class  of  sciences  which  are  of  a still  more  complex 
nature,  dealing  with  large  complex  objects  or  groups  of  objects,  and 
making  use  in  special  ways  of  the  facts  and  laws  included  in  the 
primary  and  secondary  sciences.  Such,  for  example,  are  the  sciences 
of  geology,  geography,  and  medicine,  and  in  this  class  I would  also 
put  the  science  of  agriculture.  For  our  purpose,  at  least,  we  may  call 
these  sciences  Tertiary  Sciences. 

Without  doubt  greater  refinements  of  classification  would  be  required 
if  we  were  making  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  relations  of  the  various 
sciences  to  each  other.  We  should  at  the  outset  of  such  a study  find 
great  difficulty  in  exactly  defining  the  boundaries  of  each  science,  for 
the  more  closely  we  study  the  different  forms  and  groups  of  matter 
and  living  organisms  the  more  clearly  we  see  the  intermingling  and 
overlapping  of  laws  and  phenomena.  The  relations  of  this  to  our 
present  subject  I shall  briefly  consider  later.  It  will,  however,  help 
to  remove  difficulties  in  defining  the  science  of  agriculture  if  we  keep 
in  mind  the  somewhat  rough  and  ready  classification  of  sciences,  which 
I have  made  into  three  groups — Primary,  Secondary,  and  Tertiary. 

The  primary  sciences  are  those  which  deal  with  the  constitution  of 
things. 

The  secondary  sciences  are  those  which  classify  and  describe  natural 
objects  and  explain  their  constitution  and  functions — on  the  basis  of 
the  primary  sciences. 

The  tertiary  sciences  are  those  which  deal  with  aggregations  of 
natural  objects  correlated  so  as  to  form  a natural  or  artificial  system, 
which  may  be  described  as  a whole,  and  the  constitution  and  functions 
of  which  may  be  explained  on  the  basis  of  the  primary  and  secondary 
sciences. 

From  the  complex  and  diverse  nature  of  the  systems  with  which  the 
tertiary  sciences  deal  it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  they  can  be  satis- 
factorily classified,  or  that  they  will  individually  permit  of  rigid  and 
adequate  definition.  It  will  always  be  somewhat 'difficult  to  differenti- 
ate them  absolutely  from  the  sciences  underlying  them,  but  in  this 
respect  they  differ  only  in  degree  from  the  primary  and  secondary 
sciences.  In  the  development  of  modern  science,  with  its  almost  limit- 
less ramification  sand  the  numerous  points  of  view  from  which  scientific 
investigations  may  be  pursued  and  their  results  recorded,  it  is  no 
longer  possible  to  make  logical  and  fixed  boundaries  for  particular 
sciences.  Whether  the  science  of  nutrition,  for  instance,  shall  be  con- 


426 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


sidered  physiological  chemistry  or  chemical  physiology  or  a branch  of 
biology^ — either  botanical  or  zoological — will  depend  a good  deal  on 
the  point  of  view  of  the  scientist  defining  it. 

Nevertheless,  I believe  it  is  possible  to  sufficiently  differentiate  the 
individual  tertiary  sciences  so  that  they  may  be  considered  as  organic 
wholes  rather  than  mere  aggregations  of  underlying  sciences.  And, 
as  1 shall  endeavor  to  show  later,  I deem  it  very  important  that  they 
should  be  thus  differentiated  and  studied.  Let  us,  therefore,  examine 
the  definitions  which  mayT  fairly  be  given  to  some  of  these  tertiary 
sciences. 

The  following  outline  of  the  main  divisions  of  the  sciences  of  geol- 
ogy,  geography,  medicine,  and  agriculture  may  make  clearer  the  com- 
parative view  of  these  sciences  presented  herewith : 


Geology  (science  of  litho- 
sphere): 

Dynamic  Geology. 
Petrography. 

Structural  Geology. 
Physiography. 

Historic  Geology — 
Stratigraphic. 
Paleontologic. 

Economic  Geology. 
Geologic  Technology. 
Medicine: 

Pathology. 

Medical  Chemistry. 

Pharmacology. 

Therapeutics. 

Surgery. 

Hygiene  and  Sanitation. 
Medical  Jurisprudence. 


Geography: 

Mathematical  (a)  Astronomical. 

(6)  Mathematical 
proper 

Physical  (a)  Physiography. 

(6)  Hydrography. 
Political  (a)  Ethnography. 

( b ) Ethnology. 


{Geodesy. 
Topography. 
Cartography, 


Agriculture: 


r Agronomy.  i Breeding. 

Plant  Production  \ Horticulture.  ^Culture. 


Zootechny 


l Forestry. 
Mammaliculture. 
Aviculture. 
Pisciculture. 
Apiculture. 
Sericulture. 


J Preservation. 

Breeding. 

Nutrition. 

Management. 


Agrotechny. 

Rural  Engineering. 
Rural  Economics. 


Geology , as  the  science  of  the  earth,  or  more  strictly'  of  the  litho- 
sphere, may  be  subdivided  as  stated  above.  The  relation  of  Geology^  to 
other  sciences  is  thus  stated  by  G.  K.  Gilbert  in  Johnson’s  Cyclopedia: 

It  is  related  to  physical  geography,  the  science  of  the  surface.  This  relation  is 
peculiarly  intimate,  because  the  same  series  of  changes  which  have  produced  the 
texture  and  structure  of  the  crust  have  also  produced  the  forms  of  the  surface,  so  that 
the  processes  of  change  belong  alike  to  dynamic  geology  and  physical  geography; 
and  physiography  is  claimed  by  both  sciences.  Mineralogy,  though  strictly  a 
department  of  chemistry,  is  interwoven  with  petrography,  and  their  relations  are 
doubtless  destined  to  become  still  more  intimate  as  the  genesis  of  rocks  and  minerals 
comes  to  be  better  understood.  Paleontology,  though  an  inseparable  part  of  historic 
geology,  is  equally  inseparable  from  biology;  but  while  neither  affiliation  can  be 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


427 


abandoned,  there  is  a well-developed  tendency  to  divide  this  science  into  two  parts— 
biologic  paleontology  being  concerned  chiefly  with  the  sequence  or  evolution  of  living 
forms  as  illustrated  by  fossils,  and  geologic  paleontology  with  the  association  of.fosals 
in  faunas  and  floras. 

The  development  of  the  Science  of  Geography  is  well  shown  for  our 
present  purposes  in  the  following1  extract  from  an  article  by  Guyot 
and  Gilbert  in  Johnson’s  Cyclopedia: 

Geography  is,  literally,  a description  of  the  earth.  This  is  General  Descriptive  Geog- 
raphy. But  the  great  process  of  physical  and  natural  science,  as  well  as  the  science 
of  man  in  all  his  conditions,  has  awakened  a desire  for  a higher,  more  comprehen- 
sive, and  intelligent  knowledge  of  the  earth.  To  describe  without  rising  to  the 
causes  and  descending  to  the  consequences  of  the  phenomena  is  not  science.  The 
reflective  mind  craves  more.  While  studying  the  earth  in  its  natural  aspects,  it 
wishes  to  learn  why  these  natural  phenomena  are  as  they  appear,  how  they  are  pro- 
duced, and  what  laws  govern  them.  It  seeks  to  understand  the  relations  of  mutual 
dependence  that  bind  them  together,  as  causes  and  effects,  .into  a vast  system,  into 
one  great  individual  mechanism,  which  is  the  terrestrial  globe  itself,  with  all  it  con- 
tains. Such  a science  must  endeavor  to  discover  those  incessant  mutual  actions  of 
the  different  portions  of  physical  nature  upon  each  other,  of  inorganic  nature  upon 
organized  beings — upon  man  in  particular — and  upon  the  successive  development  of 
human  societies;  in  a word,  to  study  the  reciprocal  action  of  all  these  forces,  the 
perpetual  play  of  which  constitutes  what  might  be  called  the  life  of  the  globe.  This 
is  Scientific  Geography , which  may  be  defined  as  the  science  of  the  general  phenomena 
of  the  globe,  and  its  life,  in  reference  to  their  connection  with  mutual  dependence. 

It  may  be  asked  whether  a science  which  thus  embraces  the  whole  domain  of 
nature  and  man  has  a claim  to  an  individual  existence;  but  when  geology  has  taught 
the  composition  of  the  earth’s  crust  and  the  history  of  its  gradual  formation,  physics, 
the  laws  which  govern  matter;  when  botany  and  zoology  have  classified  the  plants 
and  animals  according  to  their  affinities  and  differences  in  a grand  system  of  life; 
when  ethnography  and  history  have  done  their  special  work  it  still  remains  for  geog- 
raphy to  trace  out  the  relations  of  these  various  orders  of  things  to  each  other. 
Geography  needs  the  results  of  all  these  sciences,  but  is  not  to  be  confounded  with 
them. 

Geography,  as  the  science  of  the  earth,  is  naturally  divided  into  three  great  depart- 
ments corresponding  to  three  orders  of  facts:  The  earth  considered  as  a planet,  a 
part  of  the  solar  system,  or  Astronomical  Geography;  the  earth  considered  in  itself, 
the  Geography  of  Nature,  or  Physical  Geography;  the  earth  considered  as  the  abode 
of  man,  the  Geography  of  Man.  These  three  departments  are  usually  called  Mathe- 
matical, Physical,  and  Political  Geography. 

I have  given  this  account  of  geography  because  it  illustrates  very 
well  on  what  broad  lines  a Tertiary  science  may  be  constructed. 
Geography,  as  a science  in  this  modern  sense,  is  of  very  recent  date 
and  has  hardly  yet  passed  the  time  of  struggle  for  recognition  as  a 
distinct  science.  This  is  not  remarkable,  because  the  new  science  of 
geography  embraces  material  drawn  from  many  sciences.  Mathe- 
matics, physics,  botany,  zoology,  geology,  astronomy,  meteorology, 
ethnology,  and  statistics — these  at  least  are  embraced  in  geography, 
and  there  have  been  many  scientists  (of  whom  a few  remain  unto  this 
present  day)  who  have  claimed  that  geography  is  merely  a loose 
aggregation  of  materials  drawn  from  different  sciences,  and  should 


428 


REPORT  OE  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


therefore  not  be  considered  as  a distinct  science.  Others  have  claimed 
that  it  is  merely  a branch  of  some  existing  science,  e.  g.,  astronomy 
or  geolog}^.  But  as  geographers  have  kept  at  their  work  and  have 
elaborated  and  correlated  the  different  parts  of  the  science  of  geogra- 
phy, the  distinctiveness  of  this  body  of  knowledge  has  become  more 
apparent  and  the  advantages  of  studying  the  subjects  included  in 
geography  in  a systematic  way  according  to  their  groupings  as  geog- 
raphy have  been  more  clearly  revealed.  Hence  in  our  best  institu- 
tions for  higher  learning,  instead  of  being  contented  with  giving  the 
student  instruction  in  the  sciences  related  to  geography,  special  and 
distinct  courses  in  geography  are  being  offered,  and  it  is  coming  to  be 
recognized  that  even  the  teachers  of  elementary  geography  should 
have  special  training  in  the  science  of  geography  in  the  normal  school, 
or  the  college  or  university. 

The  Science  of  Medicine  is  one  of  the  Tertiary  sciences,  which,  like 
the  science  of  agriculture,  has  been  profoundly  affected  by  recent 
researches  in  other  sciences.  It  is,  therefore,  in  process  of  reconstruc- 
tion. And  one  marked  effect  of  the  remarkable  widening  of  the 
scientific  basis  of  the  practice  of  medicine  has  been  that  the  science  of 
medicine  has  lost  that  clear-cut  definition  which  in  past  times  it  was 
thought  to  have.  For  this  reason,  while  there  are  numerous  old 
treatises  in  which  elaborate  classifications  of  the  science  of  medicine 
are  set  forth,  such  classifications  have  almost  entirely  disappeared  from 
the  recent  literature  of  medicine.  At  the  same  time  we  have  in  medical 
institutions  and  treatises  an  advancing  elaboration  and  differentiation 
of  courses  and  subjects  bearing  on  the  science  of  human  disease  and  its 
prevention  or  cure.  On  the  basis  of  ' a thorough  study  of  the  consti- 
tution, morphology,  and  physiology  of  the  normal  human  being,  the 
modern  science  of  medicine  embraces  pathology  (anatomical  and  physi- 
ological), medical  chemistry,  pharmacology,  therapeutics,  surgery, 
hygiene  and  sanitation,  and  medical  jurisprudence.  Medicine  is  then  a 
science  which  uses  materials  drawn  from  many  sciences.  These  mate- 
rials are  grouped  in  new  and  special  ways  with  reference  to  their  ulti- 
mate usefulness  as  a basis  for  an  art  or  practice.  This  practice  is 
clearly  differentiated  from  the  science  and  3Tet  indissolubH  united  with 
it.  In  this  respect  medicine  and  agriculture  are  comparable.  In  the 
case  of  both  there  is  a science  (now,  as  we  believe,  on  a sound  basis  and 
rapidily  developing  along  right  lines);  but  there  is  also  a practice, 
which  is  every  year  being  more  profoundly  and  beneficially  affected 
by  the  science  explaining  the  principles  on  which  its  processes  are 
founded  and  revealing  the  facts  and  laws  by  means  of  which  its  opera- 
tions may  be  further  improved. 

The  Science  of  Agriculture  is  that  body  of  knowledge  (gained  and 
verified  b}r  exact  observation  and  correct  thinking,  methodically  for- 
mulated and  arranged  in  a rational  system)  in  which  the  facts  relating 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


429 


to  the  production  of  plants  and  animals  useful  to  man  and  the  uses  of 
these  plants  and  animals  are  accurately^  set  forth,  and  a rational  expla^ 
nation  is  given  of  the  phenomena  and  laws  involved  in  such  production 
and  uses.  It  is  obvious  that  this  body  of  knowledge  may  be  Variously 
subdivided,  according  to  different  purposes  of  study  or  application. 
But  in  order  to  bring  out  more  clearly  my  conception  of  the  science,  I 
shall  now  attempt  to  make  and  define  one  series  of  subdivisions. 

Agriculture,  as  the  science  of  the  production  and  use  of  plants  and 
animals  useful  to  man,  may  be  divided  into  Plant  Production,  Animal 
Production  or  Zootechny,  Agricultural  Technology  or  Agrotechny^, 
Rural  Engineering,  and  Rural  Economics. 

Under  Plant  Production  is  included  whatever  relates  to  the  natural 
or  artificial  environment  (i.  e.,  climate,  soil,  water,  fertilizers)  of  use- 
ful plants,  their  structure,  composition,  physiology",  botanical  relations, 
varieties,  geographical  distribution,  culture,  harvesting,  preservation, 
and  uses,  and  the  obstructions  to  their  growth,  preservation,  or  use. 
Plant  Production  may  be  subdivided  into  Agronomy,  which  deals 
with  what  are  commonly  called  field  or  farm  corps;  Horticulture, 
which  deals  with  vegetables,  fruits,  and  ornamental  plants,  especially 
as  grown  in  gardens,  small  plantations,  or  parks;  and  Forestry,  which 
deals  with  trees  and  shrubs  grown  in  large  tracts.  It  is  obvious  that 
the  boundaries  of  these  divisions  of  Plant  Production  can  not  be  very 
exact.  Whether  sweet  potatoes  or  beans  shall  be  called  agronomical 
or  horticultural  crops  will  depend  largely  on  the  conditions  of  their 
culture;  and  whether  a certain  kind  of  a tree  shall  be  considered  a 
forest  tree  or  an  ornamental  plant,  will  depend  on  the  method  of  its 
culture  and  use.  The  science  of  Plant  Production  derives  its  materials 
from  meteorology , agricultural  physics  and  chemistry,  economic  botany, 
bacteriology,  vegetable  physiology-  and  pathology,  economic  entomol- 
ogy, economic  zoology,  and  perhaps  from  other  sciences.  But  these 
materials  may  be  grouped  in  their  relations  to  the  processes  involved 
in  the  production  and  uses  of  different  kinds  of  plants,  so  as  to  form  a 
distinct  body  of  knowledge  fairly  entitled  to  the  name  of  Science  of 
Plant  Production  as  one  of  the  divisions  of  the  Science  of  Agriculture. 

The  Science  of  Plant  Production  may  be  subdivided  either  accord- 
ing to  groups  of  plants  as  suggested  above,  i.  e.,  into  Agronomy, 
Horticulture,  and  Forestry,  or  along  other  lines,  e.  g.,  Plant  Breeding, 
Plant  Culture,  and  Plant  Preservation.  Thus  the  plant  breeder  may  be 
differentiated  from  the  plant  physiologist  as  a man  who  is  an  expert 
in  the  science  of  improving  the  varieties  of  useful  plants  for  particular 
purposes,  taking  into  account  the  climate  and  soil  in  which  the  plants 
are  to  be  grown,  and  the  economic  uses  to  which  they  are  to  be  put. 
He  must  be  a plant  physiologist;  but  if  he  is  only  that,  he  will  not  be 
a successful  plant  breeder.  The  plant  culturist  should  understand  the 
physics  and  chemistry"  of  soils,  the  botanical  relations  and  physiology 


430 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


of  useful  plants,  the  uses  to  which  these  plants  are  devoted,  and  the 
weeds,  fungi,  bacteria,  insects,  and  other  pests  which  may  impede 
their  growth.  He  must  know  all  this  in  relation  to  the  problems  of 
the  growth  of  plants  under  the  actual  conditions  in  field  and  green- 
house, or  he  has  not  mastered  the  science,  to  say  nothing  of  the  art  of 
plant  culture. 

The  second  great  division  of  the  Science  of  Agriculture  is  Animal 
Production,  or  Zootechny.  This  includes  whatever  relates  to  the 
anatomy,  physiology,  zoological  relations,  domestication,  types  and 
breeds,  breeding,  feeding,  hygiene,  management,  and  uses  of  useful 
animals.  It  may  also  include  the  science  which  treats  of  diseases  and 
other  impediments  to  the  production  of  animals,  i.  e.,  Veterinary 
Science,  though  this  is  in  itself  a large  and  distinct  body  of  knowl- 
edge, and  bears  only  the  same  relation  to  Zootechny  that  the  science 
of  medicine  bears  to  anthropology. 

Zootechny  may  be  subdivided,  according  to  the  kinds  of  animals 
studied,  into  Mammal iculture,  Aviculture,  Pisciculture,  Apiculture, 
Sericulture,  or  into  such  branches  as  Animal  Breeding,  Animal  Nutri- 
tion, and  Animal  Management. 

Agrotechny  includes  whatever  relates  to  the  conversion  of  raw  mate- 
rials produced  in  agriculture  into  manufactured  articles  for  use  in 
commerce  and  the  arts.  It  may  also  include  the  processes  of  handling 
these  raw  materials  in  connection  with  their  commercial  uses,  as  in 
the  case  of  milk  and  cream  sold  for  consumption.  It  also  involves 
whatever  relates  to  departures  from  standards  set  for  manufactured 
articles,  i.  e.,  adulterations  and  sophistications,  in  somewhat  the  same 
way  that  the  diseases  of  plants  and  animals  are  related  to  Agronomy 
and  ZootechnyT.  Agrotechny  is  naturally  divided  into  specialties 
according  to  the  kinds  of  materials,  e.  g.,  foods  and  feeding  stuffs, 
liquors,  oils,  textiles,  and  leather.  The  subdivision  of  most  importance 
as  a subject  of  school  instruction  in  the  United  States  is  dairying. 

Rural  Engineering  includes  those  branches  of  civil  and  mechanical 
engineering  which  relate  to  the  locating,  arranging,  and  equipment  of 
farms  and  the  construction  and  operation  of  farm  implements  and 
machinery.  It  embraces  the  surveying  of  farms,  the  location  of  farm 
buildings  and  works,  the  construction  of  buildings,  water,  irrigation, 
drainage,  and  sewage  system,  and  roads.  It  also  involves  the  princi- 
ples of  mechanics  as  applied  to  farm  machinery  and  the  use  of  differ- 
ent kinds  of  power  for  agricultural  purposes.  As  a branch  of  the  Sci- 
ence of  Agriculture  it  involves  an  understanding  of  the  requirements 
of  the  plants  and  animals  to  be  grown  and  used  on  the  farm,  as  well 
as  the  needs  of  the  human  inhabitants  as  related  to  engineering 
problems. 

Rural  Economics  may  be  more  or  less  broadly  defined  according  to 
the  point  of  view.  It  at  least  includes  whatever  is  related  to  agricul- 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


431 


turo  considered  as  a means  for  the  production,  preservation,  and  dis- 
tribution  of  wealth  by  the  use  of  land  for  the  growing  of  plants  and 
animals.  It  may  include  the  development  of  agriculture  as  a business 
(history  of  agriculture),  as  well  as  the  facts  and  principles  of  farm 
management  under  present  conditions.  If  formulated  and  studied  in 
its  relation  to  the  production  and  uses  of  useful  plants  and  animals, 
Rural  Economics  may  fairly  be  claimed  to  be  a branch  of  the  Science 
of  Agriculture,  though  the  same  facts  and  principles  may  easily  be  so 
grouped  as  to  make  a subdivision  of  political  economy  or  sociology. 

It  should  be  understood  that,  while  insisting  on  the  existence  of  a 
real  Science  of  Agriculture,  I do  not  claim  that  the  boundaries  of  this 
science  can  be  determined  with  anything  like  mathematical  precision. 
But  this  is,  as  has  already  been  said,  also  true  in  greater  or  less  degree 
of  all  the  sciences. 

It  is  also  true  that  in  making  subdivisions  of  an}r  science  scholars 
do  not  now  insist  on  rigid  divisions,  or  attach  any  very  great  impor- 
tance to  any  particular  scheme  of  classification.  But  when  this  has 
been  granted  it  must  be  insisted  that,  for  such  purposes  as  the  organ- 
ization of  courses  of  study  and  the  administration  of  great  insti- 
tutions of  research,  there  should  be  the  recognition  of  such  sciences  as 
geolog}T,  geography,  medicine,  and  agriculture  as  the  basis  for  the 
organization  of  the  curriculum  or  administrative  system;  for  practi- 
cally a good  deal  depends  in  our  colleges  and  scientific  institutions  on 
the  point  of  view  of  the  managers,  teachers,  and  investigators.  As 
long  as  we  admit  the  nonexistence  of  a Science  of  Agriculture,  and 
are  satisfied  with  aiding  agriculture  through  teaching  and  investigation 
in  the  sciences  related  to  agriculture,  we  shall  have  boards  of  trustees 
and  college  presidents  who  will  be  satisfied  when  their  chemists,  physi- 
cists, and  botanists  add  to  their  ordinary  teaching  of  the  principles 
of  chemistry,  pl^sics,  and  botany  a limited  amount  of  information 
regarding  the  application  of  those  sciences  to  agriculture;  and  the 
teachers  themselves,  approaching  the  subject  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  primary  or  secondary  sciences,  will  be  most  likely  to  subordinate 
the  agricultural  side  of  their  instruction  to  the  general  view  of  their 
favorite  science;  so  that  the  pupils  will  learn  a great  deal  more  about 
the  relations  of  agricultural  subjects  to  botany  or  chemistry  than  they 
will  about  the  relation  of  botanical  and  chemical  knowledge  to  the 
production  of  useful  plants  and  animals. 

The  establishment  of  such  an  organization  as  the  Bureau  of  Plant 
Industry  in  the  Department  of  Agriculture  marks  an  immense  gain, 
not  only  in  effectiveness  of  administration,  but  in  the  relation  of  the 
scientific  effort  of  the  investigators  to  agriculture.  Now,  the  men  in 
that  Bureau  feel  that  they  are  working  primarily  as  agricultural  scien- 
tists rather  than  merely  as  botanists.  Their  outlook  toward  their 
work  is  changed;  there  is  a disposition  to  lay  under  contribution  every 


432 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


science  required  to  work  out  the  complex  problems  of  agriculture, 
and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  they  will  accomplish  for  the 
Science  of  Plant  Production,  as  part  of  the  Science  of  Agriculture, 
what  that  great  Bureau  known  as  the  Geological  Survey  has  done  for 
the  Science  of  Geology.  All  questions  regarding  the  exact  boundaries 
of  the  Science  of  Agriculture  or  of  its  subdivisions  sink  into  insignifi- 
cance when  compared  with  the  substantial  fact  that  there  is  a rapidly 
increasing  body  of  knowledge  which  fairly  constitutes  a Science  of 
Agriculture,  and  that  by  organizing  our  colleges  of  agriculture,  experi- 
ment stations,  and  Department  of  Agriculture  on  the  basis  of  this 
science  we  may  secure  such  increased  efficiency  of  work  and  adminis- 
tration as  will  greatfy  widen  the  scope  and  thoroughness  of  this 
science,  and,  through  its  effective  application  to  practice  in  an  ever- 
increasing  number  of  ways,  do  more  to  improve  the  art  of  agriculture 
than  would  ever  be  possible  as  long  as  there  were  simply  fragments  of 
knowledge  regarding  agricultural  subjects  scattered  through  a score 
of  sciences. 

The  fact  that  there  is  an  art  of  agriculture,  and  that  this  art  in  its 
cruder  forms  involves  comparatively  simple  operations,  in  no  wa}T 
militates  against  the  need  and  feasibility  of  having  a science  of  agri- 
culture. There  is  a practice  of  medicine  as  well  as  a science  of 
medicine.  In  his  humbler  work  the  doctor  or  the  surgeon  performs 
many  simple  manual  operations  which  have  been  similarly  performed 
for  thousands  of  years  and  long  prior  to  the  formulation  of  any  science 
of  medicine. 

We  readily  grant  that  the  operations  of  agriculture  ma}r  be  per- 
formed by  persons  ignorant  of  the  science,  but  it  is  already  evident 
that  a right  knowledge  of  the  science  may  be  very  helpful  in  the 
practice  of  the  art.  It  is  also  becoming  apparent  that  the  teaching  of 
chemistry,  botany,  and  zoology,  even  on  their  economic  sides,  is  not 
enough  to  satisfy  the  needs  of  agriculture.  There  must  be  teaching 
of  the  science  of  agriculture  as  such,  from  the  university  down. 

The  method  of  m}r  present  discussion  of  the  science  of  agriculture 
has  been  chosen  because  there  are  still  those  who  rank  high  in  scien- 
tific and  pedagogical  circles  who  claim  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
science  of  agriculture,  and  this  view  of  the  matter  has  not  onfy 
had  great  influence  in  shaping  courses  of  instruction  and  methods  of 
investigation  along  agricultural  lines  in  the  past,  but  is  still  operating 
in  our  colleges  and  experiment  stations  to  prevent  the  formulation  of 
vastly  better  courses  of  instruction  and  methods  of  investigation  in 
these  lines. 

W ithout  doubt,  the  theoretical  and  practical  denial  of  the  possibility 
of  a science  of  agriculture  has  had  much  to  do  with  the  comparative^ 
slow  growth  of  the  science  and  the  present  unsatisfactory  condition 
of  agricultural  instruction  in  many  of  our  colleges.  Nevertheless,  a 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


433 


science  of  agriculture  has  been  developed  and  has  already  reached 
such  a stage  that  its  claims  are  each  year  being  more  distinctly  recog- 
nized in  our  agricultural  colleges. 

The  differentiation  of  the  body  of  knowledge,  which  may  fairly  be 
called  the  science  of  agriculture,  from  the  other  sciences  will  lead  to 
profound  changes  in  the  methods  of  teaching  agricultural  subjects,  the 
equipment  for  such  instruction,  and  the  arrangement  of  courses  to 
meet  the  needs  of  different  classes  of  students.  We  are,  in  fact, 
already  in  the  midst  of  such  changes.  The  most  obvious  result  of 
this  movement  thus  far  is  the  division  of  the  subject  of  agriculture 
among  several  instructors  in  a college,  so  as  to  make  at  least  the 
beginnings  of  a real  agricultural  facult}^.  Thus  we  now  have  quite 
commonly  in  our  agricultural  colleges  professors  of  agronomy,  animal 
husbandry  (zootechny),  dairying,  horticulture,  and  veterinary  science. 
When  a group  of  instructors  is  thus  formed  the  natural  consequence 
is  a special  building  in  which  they  may  work,  to  a certain  extent  at 
least,  in  cooperation.  When  the  building  is  provided  it  is  seen  to  be 
appropriate  and  desirable  that  it  should  contain  special  arrangements, 
facilities,  apparatus,  etc.,  suited  to  the  requirements  of  the  subjects  to 
be  taught  in  it.  This  leads  the  instructors  in  several  branches  of  agri- 
culture to  set  their  wits  to  work  to  devise  special  arrangements  and 
apparatus  which  will  improve  the  quality  and  thoroughness  of  their 
instruction.  Along  with  this  there  is  more  study  of  the  relation  of 
the  different  topics  to  each  other  in  a scheme  of  instruction,  the  rear- 
rangement of  courses,  the  improvement  of  methods  of  teaching,  and 
the  discussion  of  the  whole  subject  of  the  pedagogy  of  agricultural 
science.  Such  a ferment  and  development  is  already  making  trouble 
for  the  presidents  and  boards  of  trustees  of  our  agricultural  colleges. 
The  simple  and  inexpensive  facilities  which  have  hitherto  sufficed  for 
agricultural  instruction  will  no  longer  do.  Agriculture  claims,  and  is 
now  in  a position  to  rightly  claim,  the  same  kind  of  treatment  as  is 
now  quite  generally  accorded  to  engineering  and  mechanic  arts.  If 
the  teachers  of  agriculture  are  really  alive  to  their  business  and  suc- 
cessful in  their  endeavors  to  systematize  their  subjects  and  improve 
the  quality  of  their  teaching,  they  will  devise  and  develop  methods, 
apparatus,  and  illustrative  material  which  will  call  for  an  increased 
amount  of  money  to  properly  house  and  maintain.  We  shall  have 
failed  in  one  of  the  great  purposes  of  this  summer  school  if  the 
teachers  of  agriculture  here  assembled  do  not  return  to  their  respect- 
ive institutions  better  prepared  and  mqre  in  earnest  to  contend  in 
every  proper  way  for  the  development  and  increase  of  the  agricul- 
tural faculties,  and  the  facilities  for  agricultural  instruction.  This 
is  not  a matter  of  tine  buildings  and  extensive  fields.  The  real  prob- 
lem before  the  agricultural  faculties  is  to  devise  more  and  better 
apparatus;  to  discover  far  better  methods  of  utilizing  the  college 
S.  Doc.  104 28 


434 


REPOET  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


farm  as  a real  agricultural  laboratory;  to  provide  live-stock  rooms 
and  barns  and  plant  houses,  which  will  be  of  more  real  use  as  aids  to 
instruction.  The  more  the  teachers  of  agriculture  show  they  have 
grasped  the  pedagogic  principles  involved  in  the  proper  presentation 
of  their  subjects  to  students,  and  the  more  the}r  collect  and  utilize 
appropriate  apparatus  and  illustrative  material,  the  easier  it  will  be  to 
get  for  them  proper  housing  and  equipment.  What  we  need  especially 
now  are  original  and  ingenious  teachers.  Really  competent  men  have 
a better  chance  of  great  success  than  ever  before. 

Meanwhile  the  investigations  in  progress  in  experiment  stations  and 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  kindred  institutions  are  rapidty 
widening  the  boundaries  of  the  science  of  agriculture  and  increasing 
the  material  for  instruction.  Those  men  who  are  sifting  the  results 
of  these  investigations  and  writing  books  and  other  summaries  are 
performing  a very  useful  service.  The  science  must  have  a form  and 
body  in  literature  before  it  can  hope  for  general  recognition.  Its 
claims  are  being  recognized  in  a hopeful  way  by  the  editors  of  diction- 
aries, cj^clopedias,  and  other  general  works  of  reference.  The  great 
Cyclopedia  of  Horticulture  marks  a distinct  gain  for  the  cause  of  agri- 
cultural science,  and  will,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  soon  be  supplemented  by 
a Cyclopedia  of  Agriculture. 

There  need  be  no  fear  that  the  elaboration  of  the  Science  of  Agri- 
culture, the  definition  of  its  relation  to  the  primary  and  secondaiy  sci- 
ences, and  the  making  of  more  thorough  and  severe  requirements  for 
courses  in  agriculture  in  our  colleges  will  stand  in  the  way  of  broad- 
ening the  field  of  agricultural  instruction,  so  as  to  make  it  reach  the 
great  body  of  our  youths  in  agricultural  communities,  who,  from  the 
necessities  of  their  condition  and  environment,  will  not  be  able  to 
attend  our  colleges.  On  the  contrary,  the  more  definite  the  Science 
of  Agriculture  is  made,  and  the  more  thorough  the  pedagogics  of 
agricultural  instruction  become,  the  easier  it  will  be  to  provide  good 
text-books  and  manuals  for  elementary  instruction  in  agriculture,  and 
to  prepare  courses  and  teachers  of  agricultural  subjects  for  the  lower 
schools.  Hand  in  hand  with  the  improvement  and  definition  of  the 
Science  of  Geography,  the  establishment  of  university  courses  on  this 
subject,  and  the  enlargement  of  geographical  research,  has  gone  the 
improvement  of  the  text-books  and  manuals  of  geography  in  all  grades 
of  schools,  and  the  betterment  of  teachers  and  facilities  for  instruction 
in  this  subject.  The  lowest  grades  of  schools,  as  well  as  the  highest, 
have  realized  beneficial  effect^  from  the  thorough  overhauling  of  geo- 
graphical science  which  the  past  quarter  of  a century  has  witnessed. 
A^d  so  it  will  be  with  agriculture.  As  definite  results  of  investiga- 
tions accumulate,  as  college  courses  are  improved,  as  thorough  trea- 
tises on  agricultural  science  multiply,  it  wrill  be  easier  to  devise  effective 
and  useful  nature-study  lessons  in  agricultural  subjects  for  our  ele- 
mentary schools,  suitable  outline  courses  in  the  theory  and  practice  of 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


435 


agriculture  for  our  high  schools,  and  good  secondary  courses  in  gen- 
eral agriculture,  in  horticulture,  in  dairying,  and  in  other  special 
branches  for  the  special  agricultural  schools,  which  have  already  been 
so  successfully  conducted  in  a few  places*  and  which  we  hope  and 
expect  to  see  established  before  long  in  many  agricultural  regions  of 
our  country. 

I have  spoken  of  these  things  because  I deem  it  of  great  importance 
at  this  juncture  that  our  teachers  and  investigators  should  regard  the 
definition  and  formulation  of  a Science  of  Agriculture  as  a matter  of 
prime  importance.  For  with  the  establishment  and  general  recogni- 
tion of  such  a science  will  come,  not  only  the  broadening  and  strength- 
ening of  institutions  for  higher  research  and  education  in  agricultural 
subjects,  but  also  a vast  widening  of  the  range  of  agricultural  education, 
until  it  permeates  the  mass  of  our  rural  population  and  shows  its 
beneficial  results  in  the  general  elevation  of  the  intellectual  activities 
of  our  agricultural  people,  as  well  as  in  the  improvement  of  the  mate- 
rial conditions  and  gains  of  our  agricultural  practice.  For  the  Science 
of  Agriculture  is  one  of  those  peculiar  products  of  our  broader  and 
better  conceptions  of  the  field  and  office  of  science.  It  exists  not  for 
itself  alone,  but  rather  for  the  betterment  of  mankind. 

EDUCATIONAL  VALUES  OF  COURSES  IN  AGRICULTURE. 

The  educational  values  of  courses  in  agriculture  are  determined 
by  the  same  pedagogic  standards  as  are  applied  to  courses  in  other 
subjects. 

According  to  President  Eliot,  of  Harvard  Universit}7,  the  essential 
constituents  of  education  in  the  highest  sense  are  as  follows:  44  We 
must  learn  to  see  straight  and  clear;  to  compare  and  infer;  to  make  an 
accurate  record;  to  remember;  to  express  our  thoughts  with  precision, 
and  to  hold  fast  on  lofty  ideals.”  u There  is  also,”  he  says,  4 4 general 
recognition  of  the  principle  that  effective  power  in  action  is  the  true 
end  of  education  rather  than  the  storing  up  of  information  or  the 
cultivation  of  faculties  which  are  mainly  receptive,  discriminating,  or 
critical.” 

According  to  Professor  Hanus,  professor  of  education  in  the  same 
university,  the  subjects  of  instruction  in  a modern  school  course  of 
study  may  be  classified  as  follows:  44 (1)  Language  and  literature;  (2) 
social  study— history  (including  the  history  of  industry  and  commerce, 
as  well  as  political  history),  government,  descriptive  economics;  (3) 
art  (including  the  history  of  art,  as  well  as  drawing,  painting,  model- 
ing, music);  (4)  mathematics;  (5)  physical  and  biological  science;  and 
(6)  manual  training.” 

The  first  two  classes  of  subjects  have  a higher  educational  value, 
theoretically,  provided  the  student  is  interested  in  them,  but  if  he  has 
a greater  interest  in  subjects  of  the  other  classes,  they  may  have  for 
him  a higher  educational  value  and  may  be  advantageously  used  for 


436 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS; 


the  development  of  habits  of  efficiency.  The  individuality  of  the 
pupil  is  considered  of  more  importance  as  the  pupil  advances  in  age 
and  maturity.  School  courses,  especially  in  high  school  and  college, 
should  therefore  particularly  promote  the  development  of  each  pupil’s 
dominant  interests  and  powers,  and  further  should  seek  to  render  these 
interests  and  powers  subservient  to  life’s  serious  purposes,  which 
include  self-support  or  some  worthy  form  of  service,  and  intelligent, 
active  participation  in  human  affairs. 

In  this  view  of  the  educational  problem  as  related  to  modern  civili- 
zation with  its  elaborate  industrial  system,  we  do  well  to  unite  culture 
and  vocational  studies  in  school  and  college  courses. 

In  considering  the  courses  of  study  for  our  agricultural  colleges  in 
the  light  of  these  pedagogic  principles,  we  should  always  bear  in  mind 
that  a properly  constituted  agricultural  course,  taken  as  a whole,  wdll 
include  both  culture  and  vocational  studies.  This  is  well  illustrated 
by  the  course  of  study  proposed  for  our  agricultural  colleges  by  stand- 
ing’ committees  of  the  Association  of  American  Agricultural  Colleges 
and  Experiment  Stations.  This  four-}Tear  college  course  includes 
English,  modern  languages,  psychology,  ethics,  political  economy,  gen- 
eral history,  constitutional  law, drawing,  algebra,  geometry,  and  trigo- 
nometry, as  culture  studies;  next  there  are  the  pure  sciences — physics, 
chemistry,  botany,  zoology,  physiolog}r,  geology,  and  meteorology; 
lastly,  the  vocational  studies — agriculture,  horticulture  and  forestry, 
veterinary  science,  and  agricultural  chemistry.  As  regards  the  time 
assigned  to  these  subjects,  we  find  two-thirds  of  the  entire  course  is 
occupied  with  culture  and  scientific  studies,  leaving  one-third  of  the 
time  for  agricultural  science  and  its  applications  to  the  art  of  agricul- 
ture. 

There  is  no  need,  then,  to  discuss  the  educational  values  of  two-thirds 
of  this  course,  for  these  are  already  well  established.  It  will  perhaps 
help  us  to  determine  more  accurately  the  educational  values  of  the 
remaining  third,  i.  e.,  the  agricultural  portion  of  the  course,  if  we 
divide  it  into  two  sections.  A large  part  of  it  consists  of  the  study  of 
the  different  branches  of  the  science  of  agriculture.  Essentially  these 
have  educational  values  as  scientific  studies,  varying  according  to  their 
nature  and  scope.  In  their  entirety  they  cover  quite  a wide  range, 
since  they  include  materials  drawn  from  physics,  chemistry,  various 
biological  sciences,  engineering,  and  economics.  Leaving  out  for 
the  present  the  manual  operations  which  we  desire  to  consider  sepa- 
rate^ as  the  second  section  of  the  agricultural  division  of  the  college 
course,  agricultural  science  embraces  all  the  other  lines  of  instruction 
laid  down  by  Professor  Hanus,  except  language  and  literature;  that 
is,  it  includes  physical  and  biological  science,  mathematics,  art,  and 
social  study.  Properly  taught,  the  student  of  agricultural  science  will 
" See  straight  and  clear,  compare  and  infer,  make  an  accurate  record, 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


437 


remember,  express  his  thoughts  with  precision,  and  hold  fast  on  lofty 
ideals.” 

From  the  complex  nature  of  the  agricultural  sciences  they  should 
have  high  educational  values  along  these  different  lines. 

The  objects,  facts,  and  phenomena  brought  before  the  student  of 
agricultural  science  are  of  such  a kind  as  to  test  his  capacity  to  “ see 
straight  and  clear”  in  a very  high  degree.  Whatever  previous  train- 
ing he  has  had  in  this  line  will  doubtless  aid  him  in  this  new  and  higher 
field  of  science;  but  however  good  his  previous  training,  he  wull  find 
very  much  to  train  and  to  develop  his  perceptive  powers  in  observing 
the  complex  things  involved  in  agricultural  science.  The  soil,  culti- 
vated plants,  domestic  animals  are  not  simple  and  elementary  things, 
easy  to  be  apprehended  and  comprehended.  If  we  are  to  know  them 
in  any  accurate  sense,  we  must  see  straight  and  clear  and  long.  These 
agricultural  subjects  also  furnish  innumerable  opportunities  for  com- 
parisons, most  of  which  will  be  far  from  simple,  and  the  problems 
of  correct  inferences  in  this  line  of  study  are  as  difficult  as  they  are 
multitudinous. 

The  classification  of  soils  and  the  determination  of  their  relative  fer- 
tility and  adaptation  to  different  crops,  the  judging  of  live  stock  on 
the  broad  basis  of  their  fitness  for  particular  uses,  what  opportunities 
in  such  studies  “to  compare  and  infer.”  Considered  as  “mental  gym- 
nastics” a class  in  stock  judging  may  have  as  much  exercise  as  a class 
puzzling-  over  the  mysteries  of  the  Latin  or  Greek  subjunctive  mood — 
that  is,  if  our  agricultural  students  are  taught  and  not  lectured. 

No  one  would  dispute  that  the  agricultural  subjects  give  ample 
opportunity  for  exercise  in  “making  an  accurate  record”  of  what  is 
learned. 

Memory  certainly  need  not  lack  for  exercise  amid  the  innumerable 
multitude  of  items  included  in  these  agricultural  subjects.  It  is 
undoubtedly  a pity  that  memory  training  is  too  much  neglected  in  our 
modern  educational  schemes,  but  this  is  not  for  lack  of  materials  on 
which  to  work;  it  is  often  a lack  of  proper  selection  of  things  to  be 
remembered,  or  the  misguided  effort  to  remember  too  many  unimpor- 
tant items. 

And  if  ever  there  were  subjects  in  which  it  was  desirable  to  express 
our  thought  with  precision  it  is  these  agricultural  subjects.  If  only 
agricultural  writers,  teachers,  and  students  would  learn  to  do  that, 
so  that  we  might  distinguish  between  their  actual  knowledge  and  their 
theories,  it  would  be  a great  gain  for  the  cause  of  truth  and  science. 
And  the  expression  of  the  thought  may  come  through  language  or 
mathematics  or  the  graphic  arts. 

It  also  may  be  fairly  claimed  that  the  study  of  agriculture  in  its 
human  relations  may  have  an  ethical  side  of  much  educational  value. 
We  should  teach  men  in  our  agricultural  colleges  to  be  intelligent 


438 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


farmers,  not  simply  that  they  may  thus  make  a better  living,  but  also 
that  they  may  be  leaders  in  making  agriculture  alive,  progessive  art, 
which  in  the  future  shall  provide  a more  stable  and  satisfacton^  basis 
for  thrifty,  intelligent,  and  refined  rural  communities,  as  well  as  a 
stronger  guarant}T  for  the  manufactures,  commerce,  art,  literature, 
and  science  of  a higher  civilization,  in  which  industrial  and  civil  peace, 
and  not  war,  shall  be  the  established  order. 

But  the  relative  educational  value  of  agricultural  courses  will  depend 
largely  on  the  methods  of  teaching  employed.  Among  the  pedagogic 
principles  which  should  underlie  good  teaching  of  agricultural  subjects 
are  the  following: 

(1)  The  foundation  of  educational  success  in  agricultural  courses 
must  be  laid  in  the  interest  of  the  student.  The  teacher  should,  how- 
ever, remember  that  this  is  not  the  only  principle  to  be  observed. 
There  may  be  much  interest  without  much  instruction.  The  stump 
speaker  often  excites  his  hearers  to  the  highest  pitch  of  interest  with- 
out giving  them  any  useful  information,  and  a teacher  may  keep 
pupils  in  an  excited  state  of  mind  without  their  makipg  any  material 
progress  in  learning. 

(2)  There  should  be  careful  selection  and  systematic  arrangement  of 
topics  to  be  taught  in  a given  course,  so  that  the  student  will  learn  the 
most  important  things  which  he  needs  to  know,  and  will  be  put  in 
possession  of  a system  of  truth  regarding  agriculture  which  he  can 
grasp  and  hold  as  a permanent  mental  possession. 

(3)  The  methods  of  teaching  agricultural  subjects  should  be  such  as 
to  afford  the  opportunitjr  and  impose  the  necessity  on  the  student  of 
exerting  himself  strenuously  to  gain  the  mastery  of  these  subjects — 
hence  the  advantage  of  the  so-called  laboratory  methods  as  contrasted 
with  lecturing. 

(4)  To  give  a high  educational  value  to  agricultural  courses  atten- 
tion must  be  paid  to  the  time  element  in  education,  meaning  b}r  this 
not  so  much  the  duration  of  agricultural  courses  as  the  relative  amount 
of  mental  activity  compressed  into  a given  time  through  skillful  teach- 
ing. Hence  the  necessity  of  much  attention  to  the  devising  of  labora- 
tory methods  of  instruction  which  will  permit  rapid  and  varied  work, 
the  previous  preparation  of  materials,  so  that  there  may  not  be  delays 
in  the  class  room,  and  the  holding  of  the  student  to  strenuous  effort 
from  first  to  last. 

(5)  The  educational  value,  of  course,  in  agriculture  will  also  depend 
on  the  extent  to  which  they  are  made  the  means  for  developing  origi- 
nality and  executive  capacity  in  the  students.  It  is  not  enough  that 
through  such  courses  the  student  shall  gain  much  exact  and  useful 
knowledge  or  correct  methods  of  activity.  He  should  acquire  ability 
to  seek  and  find  new  truth  and  to  guide  and  control  the  activities  of 
other  men  in  practical  scientific  lines.  The  college  graduate  is  not  the 


Agricultural  Education— College  of  Agriculture,  University  of  Illinois. 


Senate  Doc.  No.  1 04. 


Plate  XLII 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


439 


nan  lie  ought  to  be  unless  he  is  capable  of  adding  to  the  sum  of  human 
knowledge  and  becoming  a leader  in  human  progress.  The  quality  of 
the  future  work  of  our  experiment  stations  and  departments  of  agri- 
culture will  depend  on  the  original  power  developed  in  the  graduates 
from  our  agricultural  courses.  The  progress  of  the  practical  agri- 
culture of  this  country  in  competition  with  the  world  will  depend  very 
largely  on  the  quality  of  the  leadership  of  the  graduates  from  these 
agricultural  courses.  And  the  organization  of  the  agricultural  indus- 
tries on  right  lines,  as  well  as  the  betterment  of  the  social  condition  of 
agricultural  communities,  will  naturally  depend  very  much  on  the 
work  of  the  agricultural  colleges  and  their  graduates.  The  signs  all 
point  to  the  wider  and  stronger  influence  of  educated  men  in  the  large 
affairs  of  industry  and  public  business,  including  the  narrower  range 
of  public  business  which  we  ordinarily  call  the  government.  In  these 
broad  lines  there  will  be  abundant  opportunities  for  agricultural  gradu- 
ates to  make  for  themselves  honorable  and  useful  careers.  Their 
success  in  this  direction  will  depend  largely  on  the  quality  of  the 
teaching  they  receive  in  agricultural  courses. 

COLLEGE  COURSES  IN  AGRICULTURE. 

The  movement  for  the  specialization  of  the  different  branches  of  the 
science  of  agriculture  and  the  development  of  a highly  organized 
faculty  in  our  agricultural  colleges  has  gone  furthest  in  the  Colleg'e  of 
Agriculture  of  the  University  of  Illinois  (PI.  XLII),  of  which  Prof. 
Eugene  Davenport  is  dean.  The  aims  and  scope  of  the  instruction 
given  in  this  college  are  set  forth  in  the  university  catalogue  for 
1901-2,  from  which  the  following  statements  are  taken: 

AIMS  AND  SCOPE. 

The  College  of  Agriculture  offers  students  an  education  designed  to  fit  them  for  the 
business  of  farming  and  at  the  same  time  to  furnish  a means  of  culture.  This  educa- 
tion is,  therefore,  partly  technical  and  partly  cultural.  Its  end  is  the  training  of 
students  to  be  not  only  successful  farmers,  but  good  citizens  and  successful  men  as 
well.  In  other  words,  it  seeks  to  provide  an  education  suitable  to  the  needs  of  rural 
people. 

Of  the  courses  leading  to  graduation  in  the  College  of  Agriculture,  the  technical 
portion  constitutes  about  one-half  of  the  entire  work  of  the  student.  Of  the  remain- 
ing portion  of  the  course,  thirty-five  hours  are  prescribed  in  the  sciences  nearest 
related  to  agriculture.  Since  the  technical  subjects  are  also  of  a scientific  character, 
the  course  as  a whole  is  essentially  scientific,  rather  than  literary;  yet  the  college  is 
mindful  of  the  educational  importance  of  history,  literature,  language,  and  the  polit- 
ical sciences,  and  reasonable  attention  is  therefore  given  to  these  subject  and  their 
pursuit  is  encouraged  by  a liberal  amount  of  open  electives. 

The  college  also  offers,  through  the  department  of  household  science,  a variety  of 
courses  especially  treating  of  the  affairs  of  the  home. 


440 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


METHODS  OF  INSTRUCTION. 

Of  the  20  instructors  in  technical  subjects,  16  devote  their  entire  time  to  agricul- 
ture. Instruction  is  by  laboratory  work,  supplemented  by  text-books,  lectures,  and 
reference  readings,  which  are  almost  constantly  assigned  from  standard  volumes 
and  periodicals.  The  student  is  brought  into  close  practical  contact  with  his  subject. 
He  takes  levels,  lays  tile,  tests  the  draft  of  tools,  traces  root  systems  of  corn  and 
other  crops,  tests  germination  of  seeds,  determines  the  fertility  in  soils  and  the  effects 
of  different  crops  and  of  different  rotations  upon  soil  fertility.  He  does  budding, 
grafting,  trimming,  and  spraying,  and  works  out  problems  in  landscape  gardening. 
He  tests  milk,  operates  separators,  makes  and  judges  butter  and  cheese.  He  studies 
cuts  of  meat  and  samples  of  wool,  judges  a great  variety  of  animals,  and  has  practice 
in  diagnosing  and  treating  their  diseases. 

EQUIPMENT. 

The  college  keeps  on  deposit  from  the  largest  manufacturers  several  thousand 
dollars’  worth  of  plows,  cultivators,  planters,  cutters,  shelters,  grinders,  mowers, 
binders,  engines,  etc.  It  has  extensive  collections  of  agricultural  plants  and  seeds 
and  their  products.  Laboratories  are  well  equipped  with  apparatus  and  appliances 
for  the  study  of  manures,  fertilizers,  fertility  of  soils,  soil  physics,  soil  bacteriology, 
germination  of  seeds,  corn  judging,  etc.  The  grounds  of  the  university  and  the 
fields  and  orchards  of  the  experiment  station  are  always  available  for  illustration  in 
class  work.  An  illustrative  series  of  colored  casts  of  fruit  and  enlarged  models  of 
fruits  and  flowers,  collections  of  seeds  and  woods,  cabinets  of  beneficial  and  noxious 
insects  with  specimens  of  their  work,  photographs,  maps,  charts,  drawings,  and  lan- 
tern slides  all  afford  valuable  material  for  study  and  illustration. 

Specimens  of  Morgan  horses;  Shorthorn,  Jersey,  Ayrshire,  and  Holstein-Friesian 
cattle;  Shropshire,  Merino,  and  Dorset  sheep,  and  Berkshire  swine  afford  material 
for  judging.  This  material,  moreover,  is  largely  increased  by  loans  from  prominent 
herds.  In  the  dairy  department  is  a complete  outfit  for  a milk-testing  laboratory 
and  for  cream  separation  and  butter  and  cheese  making.  The  department  of  veteri- 
nary science  owns  a collection  illustrating  materia  medica,  a collection  of  pathological 
specimens  illustrating  special  abnormal  bony  development,  and  a papier-mache 
model  of  a horse,  capable  of  dissection,  and  showing  every  important  detail  of 
structure.  'In  addition  are  levels,  lanterns,  microscopes,  and  cameras,  an  extensive 
list  of  agricultural  journals,  a complete  file  of  experiment  station  bulletins  from  all 
the  States,  and  an  excellent  assortment  of  standard  reference  books,  including  nearly 
all  the  pedigree  registers  published. 

DESCRIPTION  OF  DEPARTMENTS. 

AGRONOMY. 

The  department  of  agronomy,  with  a staff  of  six,  gives  instruction  in  those  subjects 
which  relate  especially  to  the  field  and  its  affairs,  as  drainage,  farm  machinery,  field 
crops,  the  physics  and  bacteriology  of  the  soil,  manures,  rotation  and  fertility,  the 
history  of  agriculture,  farm  management,  and  comparative  agriculture.  The  object 
is  to  acquaint  the  student  with  the  facts  and  principles  connected  with  the  improve- 
ment of  soils,  the  preservation  of  fertility,  the  nature  of  the  various  crops  and  the 
conditions  governing  their  successful  and  economic  production,  and  with  the  devel- 
opment of  agriculture.  This  object  is  attained  bv  the  application  of  the  laboratory 
methods  of  study  to  these  subjects,  supplemented  with  lectures,  class-room  work, 
nnd  a free  use  of  standard  literature. 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION.  441 


ANIMAL  HUSBANDRY. 

In  this  department  three  instructors  give  courses  covering  the  separate  study  of 
sheep,  swine,  beef,  and  dairy  cattle  and  their  products;  heavy  and  light  horses,  with 
their  care  and  training;  the  management  of  farm  herds,  and  the  principles  and 
practices  of  feeding  and  of  breeding.  The  purpose  is  to  familiarize  the  student  with 
animals,  first,  as  to  their  fitness  for  specific  purposes;  second,  as  to  their  care  and 
management;  third,  as  to  their  improvement  by  breeding,  and  fourth,  as  to  the 
commercial  production  of  animal  products.  This  familiarity  is  gained  by  an  exhaust- 
ive study  of  the  uses  of  domestic  animals,  the  history  and  character  of  their  breeds, 
together  with  extensive  practice  in  stock  judging,  supplemented  by  a careful  study 
of  the  methods  of  successful  stockmen  and  of  the  known  principles  of  feeding  and  of 
organic  evolution. 

DAIRY  HUSBANDRY. 

Three  instructors  give  extended  courses  in  the  study  of  milk  and  its  economic  pro- 
duction; the  characteristics . of  the  dairy  cow  and  the  management  of  dairy  farms; 
the  separation  of  cream  and  the  making  of  butter  and  cheese;  factory  management; 
dairy  bacteriology;  city  milk  supply  and  the  standardizing  and  pasteurizing  of  milk 
and  cream. 

HORTICULTURE. 

Five  instructors  conduct  courses  in  orchard  management,  small-fruit  culture,  and 
vegetable  gardening,  nut  culture,  floriculture,  landscape  gardening,  and  forestry;  in 
fruit  propagation,  greenhouse  management,  and  the  evolution  of  cultivated  plants, 
and  in  commercial  horticulture  and  nursery  management.  The  purpose  is  to  acquaint 
the  student  with  the  principles  and  practice  of  fruit  raising  and  vegetable  gardening, 
both  for  home  and  market,  and  with  successful  methods  of  combating  insect  and 
fungus  -enemies.  The  sense  of  the  beautiful  is  cultivated  and  given  expression  in 
floriculture  and  landscape  gardening,  to  the  end  that  more  of  nature’s  beauty  shall 
pervade  the  home  and  its  surroundings.  The  student  studies  plant  life  and  learns 
how  to  propagate,  cultivate,  and  improve  the  forms  that  have  been  found  useful  or 
ornamental  in  the  way  of  vegetables,  fruits,  flowers,  and  trees.  As  in  other  depart- 
ments, he  follows  the  methods  of  the  laboratory  in  that  he  learns  to  do  by  doing, 
supplementing  everything  with  numerous  references  to  standard  literature. 

HOUSEHOLD  SCIENCE. 

The  department  of  household  science  stands  for  a recognition  of  the  importance  of 
adequate  and  proper  training  for  home  duties.  It  aims  to  provide  opportunity  for  a 
scientific  study  of  some  of  the  problems  of  the  management  of  the  house,  including 
the  distribution  of  income  according  to  recognized  business  principles. 

The  courses  of  instruction  given  in  the  department  are  planned  to  meet  the  needs 
of  two  classes  of  students,  viz,  (a)  those  students  who  specialize  in  other  lines  of 
work,  but  desire  a knowledge  of  the  general  principles  and  facts  of  household  science; 
( b ) those  students  who  wish  to  make  a specialty  of  household  science  by  a compre- 
hensive study  of  the  affairs  of  the  home,  together  with  the  arts  and  sciences  whose 
applications  are  directly  connected  with  the  management  and  care  of  the  home. 

The  department  occupies  the  entire  second  floor  of  the  north  wing  of  the  agricul- 
tural building  and  is  supplied  with  laboratories,  apparatus,  and  illustrative  material, 
such  as  charts,  specimens  of  various  kinds  of  building  material,  and  exhibits  illus- 
trating the  chemical  composition  and  products  obtained  in  the  manufacture  of  cer- 
tain foods. 

The  students  have  access  also  to  the  museum  of  the  architectural  department,  as 
well  as  the  benefit  of  close  association  with  the  art  department. 


442 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


VETERINARY  SCIENCE. 

Courses  are  offered  in  veterinary  anatomy  and  physiology,  in  veterinary  materia 
medica,  and  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  veterinary  medicine  and  surgery.  The 
object  is  to  acquaint  the  student  with  the  structure  and  activities  of  animals  in  health, 
the  characteristic  symptoms  of  disease,  and  the  materials  and  methods  of  successful 
treatment.  He  therefore  makes  careful  study  of  the  structure  of  domestic  animals 
and  of  the  nature  of  their  derangements  and  the  characteristic  action  of  remedial 
agents.  The  weekly  clinic  gives  opportunity  for  practical  experience  in  the  diagnosis 
and  treatment  of  the  more  ordinary  diseases. 


COURSES  OFFERED. 

The  College  of  Agriculture  offers  the  following  courses  leading  to  the  degree  of 
bachelor  of  science:  Agricultural  course;  general  course. 


AGRICULTURAL  COURSE. 

This  course  is  designed  to  tit  young  men  for  the  business  and  relations  of  country 
life.  Students  may  graduate  upon  completing  the  studies  of  the  prescribed  list  (and 
a specified  number  of  electives). 


Classification  of  subjects. 


Prescribed. 

Agronomy. 

Animal  husbandry. 

Botany. 

Chemistry. 

Dairy  husbandry 
Economics. 

Geology. 

Horticulture. 

Military. 

Physical  training. 

Rhetoric. 

Thremmatology. 

Zoology. 

[A  list  of  the  different  courses  offered  i 
of  the  topics  included  in  each  course,  folk 


Elective. 
Agronomy. « 

Animal  husbandry. « 
Botany. a 

Dairy  husbandry. « 
Horticulture. a 
English. 

Rhetoric. a 
Zoology. a 
Veterinary  science. 


the  agricultural  subjects,  with  an  outline 
vs.] 


AGRONOMY. 

1.  Drainage  and  irrigation. — Location  of  drains  and  irrigation  conduits,  leveling,  dig- 
ging, laying  tile  and  pipes,  filling,  and  subsequent  care;  cost  of  construction  and 
efficiency;  sewers  for  the  disposal  of  waste  water  from  farm  buildings  and  the  sewage 
from  kitchen  and  toilet;  farm  water  pipes,  pipe  and  thread  cutting.  Class  work, 
laboratory,  and  field  practice. 

2.  Field  machinery. — The  tools  and  machinery  of  the  field — plows,  harrows,  and 
hoes;  seeders,  drills,  corn  and  potato  planters;  cultivators,  weeders,  and  spraying 
machines;  mowers,  rakes,  self-binders,  corn  harvesters  and  huskers,  potato  diggers, 
wagons,  etc.  Class  work  and  laboratory  practice,  including  setting  up  and  testing 
machines,  noting  construction  and  elements  necessary  for  successful  work. 


« Courses  in  addition  to  those  prescribed. 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


443 


3.  Farm  power  machinery. — Horsepowers,  gas  engines,  traction  engines,  windmills, 
pumps,  corn  shellers,  feed  cutters,  grinders,  and  thrashing  machines — their  construc- 
tion, efficiency,  durability,  and  care.  Class  room  and  laboratory  work. 

4.  Farm  buildings , fences , and  roads. — The  arrangement,  design,  construction,  and 
cost  of  farm  buildings,  especially  of  barns,  granaries,  and  silos;  the  different  kinds 
of  fences,  their  cost,  construction,  efficiency,  and  durability;  cost  and  construction  of 
roads  and  walks.  Class  work  and  practice  in  designing  and  drafting  buildings, 
operating  fence-building  machines,  setting  and  testing  fence  posts,  making  walks,  etc. 

5.  Farm  crops. — Quality  and  improvement.  Judging  of  corn  and  oats,  wheat  grad- 
ing, methods  of  improving  quality,  shrinkage  of  grain,  care  of  stored  crops  to  prevent 
injury  and  loss.  Class  and  laboratory  work. 

6.  Farm  crops. — Germination  and  growth.  Vitality  and  germination  of  seeds, 
preservation  of  seeds,  methods  of  seeding;  conditions  of  plant  growth;  peculiarities 
of  the  different  agricultural  plants  in  respect  to  structure,  habits,  and  requirements 
for  successful  growth;  enemies  to  plant  growth — weeds  and  weed  seeds,  their  identi- 
fication and  methods  of  destruction,  fungus  diseases,  such  as  smut  of  oats  and 
wheat,  and  blight,  scab,  and  rot  of  potatoes,  methods  of  prevention;  insects  injurious 
to  farm  crops,  and  how  to  combat  them.  Class  room,  laboratory,  and  field  work. 

7.  Special  crops. — A special  study  of  farm  crops  taken  up  under  an  agricultural  out- 
line— grain  crops,  root  crops,  forage  crops,  sugar  and  fiber  crops — their  history  and 
distribution  over  the  earth,  methods  of  culture,  cost  of  production,  consumption  of 
products,  and  residues  or  by-products.  Class  work  supplemented  by  practical  field 
work  and  a study  of  the  results  of  previous  experiments,  such  as  detasseling  corn, 
injury  to  roots  of  corn  by  cultivation;  selection  and  breeding  of  corn  and  other  crops, 
with  special  reference  to  practices  which  apply  directly  to  Illinois  conditions.  Stu- 
dents will  have  an  excellent  opportunity  to  study  the  work  of  the  agricultural 
experiment  station. 

8.  Field  experiments. — Special  work  by  the  students,  conducted  in  the  field.  This 
work  consists  in  testing  varieties  of  corn,  oats,  wheat,  potatoes,  and  other  farm  crops; 
methods  of  planting  corn,  seeding  grains,  grasses,  and  other  forage  crops;  culture  of 
corn,  potatoes,  and  sugar  beets;  practice  in  treating  oats  and  wheat  for  smut,  and 
potatoes  for  scab,  and  studying  the  effects  upon  the  crops;  combating  chinch  bugs 
and  other  injurious  insects.  Other  practical  experiments  may  be  arranged  with  the 
instructor.  Special  opportunities  will  be  given  to  advanced  students  of  high-class 
standing  to  take  up  experiments,  under  assignment  and  direction  of  the  instructor 
in  farm  crops,  on  certain  large  farms  in  the  State,  arrangements  having  been  made 
with  the  farm  owners  or  managers  for  such  experiments. 

9.  Soil  physics  and  management. — This  course  is  designed  to  prepare  the  student 
better  to  understand  the  effects  of  the  different  methods  of  treatment  of  soils,  and  the 
influence  of  these  methods  upon  moisture,  texture,  aeration,  fertility,  and  produc- 
tion. It  comprises  a study  of  the  origin  of  soils,  of  the  various  methods  of  soil  for- 
mation, of  their  mechanical  composition  and  classification;  of  soil  moisture  and 
means  for  conserving  it;  of  soil  texture  as  affecting  capillarity,  osmosis,  diffusion, 
and  as  affected  by  plowing,  harrowing,  cultivating,  rolling,  and  cropping;  of  the 
wasting  of  soils  by  washing;  fall  or  spring  plowing  and  drainage  as  affecting  mois- 
ture, temperatures,  and  root  development.  The  work  of  the  class  room  is  supple- 
mented by  laboratory  work,  comprising  the  determination  of  such  questions  as 
specific  gravity,  relative  gravity,  water-holding  capacity,  and  capillary  power  of  vari- 
ous soils;  also  the  study  of  the  physical  effects  of  different  systems  of  rotation  and  of 
continuous  cropping  with  various  crops,  and  the  mechanical  analysis  of  soils. 

10.  Special  problems  in  soil  physics. — This  work  is  intended  for  students  wishing  to 
specialize  further  in  the  study  of  the  physical  properties  of  soils,  and  will  include 
the  determination  by  electrical  methods  of  the  temperature,  moisture,  and  soluble 


444 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


salt  content  of  various  soils  under  actual  field  conditions;  effect  of  different  depths 
of  plowing,  cultivation,  and  rolling  on  soil  conditions;  effects  of  different  methods  of 
preparing  seed  beds;  the  physical  questions  involved  in  the  formation  and  redemp- 
tion of  the  so-called  “alkali,”  “barren,”  or  “dead  dog”  soils,  and  of  other  peculiar 
soils  of  Illinois. 

11.  Soil  bacteriology. — A study  of  the  morphology  and  activities  of  the  bacteria  wThich 
are  connected  with  the  elaboration  of  plant  food  in  the  soil  or  which  induce  changes 
of  vital  importance  to  agriculture,  with  regard  to  the  effects  of  cropping  and  tillage 
upon  these  organisms,  and  with  special  reference  to  the  study  of  those  forms  which 
are  concerned  with  the  formation  of  nitrates  and  nitrites  in  the  soil,  and  with  the 
accumulation  of  nitrogen  by  leguminous  crops.  Class  room  and  laboratory  work. 

12.  Fertilizers , rotations , and  fertility. — The  influence  of  fertility,  natural  or  sup- 
plied, upon  the  yield  of  various  crops;  the  effect  of  different  crops  upon  the  soil  and 
upon  succeeding  crops;  different  rotations  and  the  ultimate  effect  of  different  systems 
of  farming  upon  the  fertility  and  productive  capacity  of  soils.  The  above  will  be 
supplemented  by  a laboratory  study  of  manures  and  fertilizers;  their  composition, 
and  their  agricultural  and  commercial  value;  of  soils  cropped  continuously  with  dif- 
ferent crops  and  with  a series  of  crops;  of  the  fertility  of  soils  of  different  types  or 
classes  from  different  sections  of  Illinois. 

13.  Investigation  of  the  fertility  of  special  soils. — This  course  is  primarily  designed  to 
enable  the  student  to  study  the  fertility  of  those  special  soils  in  which  he  may  be 
particularly  interested,  and  to  become  familiar  with  the  correct  principles  and 
methods  of  such  investigations.  It  will  include  the  determination  of  the  nature  and 
quantity  of  the  elements  of  fertility  in  the  soils  investigated,  the  effect  upon  various 
crops  of  different  fertilizers  added  to  the  soils,  as  determined  by  pot  cultures,  and, 
where  possible,  by  plat  experiments.  This  work  will  be  supplemented  by  a system- 
atic study  of  the  work  of  experiment  stations  and  experimenters  along  these  lines 
of  investigations. 

14.  History  of  agriculture. — The  history  and  development  of  agricultural  practice 
and  progress,  wfith  special  reference  to  the  methods  employed  in  ancient  times  and 
the  effect  upon  agriculture  of  the  introduction  of  rational  crop  rotations,  the  intelli- 
gent use  of  fertilizers,  the  introduction  of  machinery,  and  the  systematic  breeding  of 
animals  and  plants. 

15.  Comparative  agriculture. — Reasons  for  the  differences  in  the  agriculture  of  dif- 
ferent times,  peoples,  and  countries,  and  why  it  is  that  the  agriculture  of  a region 
or  of  a farm  is  a definite  and  individual  problem,  together  with  the  need  of  harmo- 
nizing agricultural  practice  with  natural  conditions  as  well  as  with  the  findings  of 
science;  circumstances  that  influence  agricultural  practice,  as  soil,  climate,  machin- 
ery, race,  custom,  land  tenure,  etc.,  and  what  is  best  under  different  conditions. 

16.  German  agricultural  readings. — A study  of  the  latest  agricultural  experiments 
and  investigations  published  in  the  German  language,  special  attention  being  given 
to  soils  and  crops.  The  current  numbers  of  German  journals  of  agricultural  science 
will  be  required  and  used  as  a text.  This  course  is  designed  to  give  the  student  a 
broader  knowledge  of  the  recent  advances  in  scientific  agriculture,  and,  incidentally, 
it  will  aid  him  in  making  a practical  application  of  a foreign  language.  It  is  recom- 
mended that  it  be  taken  after  agronomy. 

17.  Special  work  in  farm  mechanics. — Students  may  arrange  for  special  work  in  any 
of  the  lines  covering  drainage  or  farm  machinery,  either  in  the  second  semester  or 
the  summer. 

18.  Investigation  and  thesis. — This  course  varies  in  the  subject-matter  of  study 
according  to  the  department  in  which  theses  are  written.  The  wrork  is  under  the 
direction  of  the  head  of  the  department  in  which  the  work  is  done. 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


445 


HORTICULTURE. 

1.  Principles  of  fruit  growing. — This  course,  which  is  designed  for  all  students  in  the 
college  of  agriculture,  deals  with  the  fundamental  principles  of  fruit  culture.  It 
embraces  a study  of  location  with  reference  to  climate  and  markets,  planting,  soil 
treatment,  pruning,  protection  from  insects  and  diseases,  harvesting,  and  marketing. 
Recitations,  reference  readings,  and  practical  exercises. 

2.  Small-fruit  culture. — A study  of  the  strawberry,  raspberry,  blackberry,  dewberry, 
currant,  gooseberry,  cranberry,  and  juneberry ; each  studied  with  reference  to  history, 
importance,  and  extent  of  cultivation,  soil,  location,  fertilizers,  propagation,  plant- 
ing, tillage,  pruning,  insect  enemies,  diseases,  varieties,  harvesting,  marketing,  profits. 
Recitations  and  reference  readings,  with  occasional  practical  exercises. 

3.  Vegetable  gardening. — Kitchen  and  market  gardening,  including  a study  of  all 
the  common  vegetables. 

4.  Plant  houses. — The  construction  and  management  of  plant  houses,  with  especial 
reference  to  the  growing  of  vegetables  under  glass.  Text-book  and  laboratory  work. 

5.  Plant  propagation. — Grafting,  budding,  layering,  making  cuttings,  pollination, 
seedage,  etc.  Text-book  and  laboratory  work. 

6.  Nursery  methods. — A study  of  some  details  of  nursery  management  and  their 
relation  to  horticulture  in  general.  Lectures  and  reference  readings. 

7.  Spraying. — The  theory  and  practice  of  spraying  plants,  embracing  a study  of 
materials  and  methods  employed  in  the  combating  of  insects  and  fungus  diseases. 
Recitations,  reference  readings,  and  laboratory  work. 

8.  Orcharding. — A comprehensive  study  of  pomaceous  fruits — apple,  pear,  quince; 
drupaceous  or  stone  fruits — plum,  cherry,  peach,  nectarine,  apricot.  Each  fruit 
studied  with  reference  to  the  points  enumerated  under  2,  above.  Lectures,  text- 
books, and  laboratory  work. 

9.  Forestry. — This  course  embraces  a study  of  forest  trees  and  their  natural  uses, 
their  distribution,  and  their  artificial  production.  The  relations  of  forest  and  climate 
are  studied,  and  the  general  topics  of  forestry  legislation  and  economy  are  discussed. 

10.  Landscape  gardening. — Ornamental  and  landscape  gardening,  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  beautifying  of  home  surroundings.  Lectures  illustrated  by  means  of  lan- 
tern slides  and  charts,  recitations,  reference  readings,  and  practical  exercises. 

11.  Economic  botany. — Useful  plants  and  plant  products.  Lectures  and  assigned 
readings. 

12.  Evolution  of  cultivated  plants.^—  Comprising  a study  of  organic  evolution  and  the 
modification  of  plants  by  domestication. 

13.  Viticulture. — A comprehensive  study  of  the  grape  and  its  products. 

14.  Nut  culture. — The  cultivation  and  management  of  nut-bearing  trees  for  com- 
mercial purposes. 

15.  Floriculture. — Amateur  and  commercial  floriculture,  including  a study  of  win- 
dow gardening,  and  the  growing  of  cut  flowers  and  decorative  plants. 

16.  General  horticulture. — For  students  not  registered  in  the  college  of  agriculture. 
A course  covering  the  general  principles  and  processes  of  fruit  growing,  gardening, 
floriculture,  and  ornamental  planting. 

17.  Commercial  horticulture. — A course  giving  practical  training  for  those  students 
intending  to  follow  horticulture  as  a business.  Work  in  houses,  orchards,  and  gar- 
dens; suited  to  ability  and  requirements  of  each  student.  Special  permission  required 
for  admission  into  this  course. 

18.  Experimental  horticulture. — A course  for  those  intending  to  engage  in  professional 
horticulture  or  experiment-station  work.  For  advanced  students. 

19.  Special  investigations  and  thesis  work. — Required  of  candidates  for  graduation. 


446 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


ANIMAL  HUSBANDRY. 

1.  Sheep , mutton,  and  wool. — The  comparative  quality  and  value  of  mutton  cuts; 
different  grades  of  wool  and  their  uses  in  manufactures,  together  with  a critical 
examination  of  animals  both  for  mutton,  wool,  and  breeding  purposes.  The  devel- 
opment and  characteristics  of  the  several  breeds;  the  most  successful  methods  of 
flock  masters  and  the  economic  production  of  mutton  and  wool  for  the  markets  of 
the  world.  Lectures,  assigned  readings,  and  extensive  practice  in  judging. 

2.  Swine  and  their  products. — A study  of  the  types  and  breeds  of  swine  and  the 
most  successful  methods  of  growing  and  marketing  their  products.  Lectures,  assigned 
readings,  and  practice  in  judging. 

4.  Market  classes,  heavy  horses. — The  horse  market;  an  outline  of  the  types  and 
classes  in  demand;  special  study  of  the  heavy  horse;  of  the  uses  to  which  he  is  put 
and  of  the  breeds  suitable  for  his  production,  together  with  the  best  methods  of 
producing  and  fitting  heavy  horses  for  market.  Lectures,  assigned  readings,  and 
exhaustive  practice  in  judging. 

5.  Market  classes,  light  horses. — Coach,  carriage,  and  road  horses;  bus  horses,  cab 
horses,  and  saddlers;  artillery  and  cavalry  horses;  a systematic  study  of  their  classes 
and  types  and  of  the  breeds  and  methods  most  suitable  for  their  production;  also 
handling  and  fitting  for  market.  Lectures,  assigned  readings,  and  practice  in  judging. 

7.  Principles  of  stock  feeding . — The  functional  activities  of  the  animal  body  and  the 
end  products  of  their  metabolism.  Foods  are  considered,  first,  chemically,  as  afford- 
ing materials  for  the  construction  of  the  body  tissues  or  animal  products,  as  meat, 
milk,  wool,  etc. ; s?cond,  dynamically,  as  supplying  the  potential  energy  for  the  body 
processes  and  for  external  labor;  third,  as  to  the  fertilizing  value  of  their  residues. 

8.  Stock  breeding.  (See  Thremmatology  1.) 

9.  Investigation  and  thesis. — Upon  lines  to  be  arranged  with  instructor  for  one  or 
both  semesters,  according  to  nature  of  the  subject. 

10.  Meat. — The  various  cuts  of  beef,  mutton,  and  pork — their  comparative  food 
value,  quality,  and  cost;  a critical  study  of  quality  and  richness  in  meat;  the  by- 
products of  the  slaughterhouse  and  their  bearing  upon  the  cost  of  meat.  Lectures, 
assigned  readings,  and  demonstrations. 

11.  Market  grades  of  beef  cattle. — An  outline  of  the  market  types  and  grades,  includ- 
ing prime  steers,  stockers,  and  feeders.  A study  of  beef  type  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  butcher,  the  feeder,  and  the  breeder.  Lectures,  assigned  readings,  and  exhaust- 
ive practice  in  judging. 

12.  Breeds  of  beef  cattle. — The  history,  development,  and  characteristics  of  the 
breeds  suitable  for  beef  production.  Tracing  pedigrees,  and  a critical  study  of  the 
same.  (This  course  is  intended  for  students  expecting  to  own  or  manage  pure-bred 
herds.)  Lectures,  assigned  readings,  and  exhaustive  practice  in  judging. 

13.  Beef  production. — Methods  and  practices  in  breeding  and  feeding  beef  cattle  for 
the  open  market.  By-products  of  the  feed  lot  and  their  bearing  upon  the  cost  of 
beef.  It  is  recommended  that  this  course  should  be  taken  after  Animal  Husbandry  1. 
Lectures,  assigned  readings,  and  a study  of  experimental  work. 

14.  Management  of  pure-bred  herds  of  beef  cattle.— Like  Animal  Husbandry  3,  this 
course  is  intended  for  students  anticipating  the  management  or  ownership  of  regis- 
tered herds.  The  breeding  herd,  and  its  housing,  feed,  and  management.  The 
selection  and  fitting  of  animals  for  sale  and  for  the  show  ring.  Disposal  of  surplus 
stock.  Lectures  and  assigned  readings. 

15.  Dairy  cattle.  (See  Dairy  Husbandry  2 and  3. ) 

16.  Stable  management  and  feeding.— Stables;  stable  floors,  fixtures  and  other  equip- 
ment, and  their  care;  feeding  and  care  of  work  horses  and  drivers  at  labor  and  at 
rest;  care  of  harness,  vehicles,  etc.  Lectures  and  reference  readings. 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


447 


17.  The  education  and  driving  of  the  horse. — A critical  study  of  the  mental  qualities, 
peculiarities,  and  limitations  of  the  horse,  together  with  the  most  successful  methods 
of  educating  and  training  him  for  skillful  work  at  labor  or  on  the  road.  The  rules 
and  practices  of  correct  driving,  the  responsibilities  of  the  driver,  and  the  courtesies 
of  the  public  highway.  Lectures,  readings,  and  practice. 

18.  Breeds  of  light  horses. — Their  history,  development,  characteristics,  and  uses. 
Lectures  and  assigned  readings. 

19.  Breeds  of  draft  horses. — Their  history,  development,  and  characteristics.  Lec- 
tures and  assigned  readings. 

20.  Breeding , rearing , and  management. — Selection  of  breeding  stock;  care  and  man- 
agement of  stallions,  mares,  and  foals;  buying,  selling,  and  showing.  Lectures  and 
assigned  readings. 

DAIRY  HUSBANDRY. 

1.  Milk. — The  character  and  composition  of  normal  milk;  standardizing  milk  and 
cream;  proper  precautions  to  prevent  contamination;  the  care  and  uses  of  milk; 
practice  with  the  Babcock  test  and  the  lactometer,  supplemented  by  lectures  and 
reference  readings  and  by  laboratory  experiments  upon  contamination  of  milk. 

2.  Dairy  cattle. — The  cow  as  a factor  in  the  economic  production  of  milk,  butter, 
and  cheese;  difference  in  the  efficiency  of  individual  animals;  establishment  of  the 
dairy  herd  by  selection  and  grading  with  pure-bred  sires;  the  principal  characteristics 
of  the  dairy  cow,  with  extensive  practice  in  judging;  the  various  breeds  adapted  to 
dairy  purposes,  their  history  and  characteristics,  with  practice  in  judging  by  both 
dairy  and  breed  standards. 

3.  Dairy-farm  management. — Soiling  and  pasturing  dairy  cows;  crops  adapted  to  the 
dairy  farm,  and  best  methods  of  converting  these  into  milk;  the  place  and  value 
of  the  silo  on  the  dairy  farm  and  the  best  methods  of  handling  and  feeding  silage; 
a study  of  the  best  and  most  economical  systems  of  feeding,  together  with  the  care 
and  raising  of  calves;  housing  and  general  care  of  the  herd;  arrangement,  ventilation, 
and  care  of  dairy  barn. 

4.  Cream  separation. — A critical  study  of  different  systems  of  cream  separation  as 
to  rapidity  and  efficiency,  and  the  comparison  of  different  machines,  especially  cen- 
trifugal separators;  designed  to  betaken  in  conjunction  with  course. 

5.  Butter  making. — Ripening  the  cream;  churning,  working,  packing,  and  scoring 
the  butter;  designed  to  be  taken  in  conjunction  with  course. 

6.  Cheese  making. — Practice  in  setting  milk,  cutting  and  cooking  the  curd,  and 
pressing  and  curing  cheese.  One-half  of  the  time  will  be  devoted  to  the  manufacture 
of  Cheddar  cheese  and  the  remainder  to  fancy  cheeses,  as  Swiss,  Edam,  Gouda,  cot- 
tage, etc. 

7.  Factory  management. — Cooperative  and  company  creameries  and  cheese  factories; 
planning  construction,  equipment,  and  operation  of  plants,  including  care  of  engines, 
boilers,  and  refrigerating  machines;  a study  of  the  construction  and  different  insula- 
tions of  creamery  refrigerators,  both  for  natural  and  mechanical  means  of  refrigera- 
tion; also  practice  in  pipe  cutting  and  soldering. 

8.  City  milk  supply. — Sources  of  milk,  together  wdth  methods  of  shipping,  handling, 
and  distributing,  and  of  securing  a healthful  product  for  large  cities. 

9.  Comparative  dairying. — A study  of  the  dairy  systems  and  practice  of  different 
countries,  including  the  care  and  management  of  dairy  cattle.  The  principal  dairy 
products  of  the  different  countries  and  the  methods  of  handling  and  sale,  particularly 
the  preparation  ofpmilk  for  direct  consumption.  The  more  important  conditions, 
historical  and  present,  and  local  and  inherited  influences  affecting  dairy  practices. 
Recitations,  reference  readings,  and  illustrated  lectures. 

10.  Dairy  husbandry , minor. — A study  of  the  composition  and  variations  of  milk, 


448 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


detection  of  adulterations  by  means  of  the  Babcock  test  and  lactometer;  standardiz- 
ing milk  and  cream;  methods  of  detection  of  impure  and  unwholesome  milk;  where 
and  to  what  extent  milk  becomes  contaminated,  and  methods  of  prevention;  scoring 
butter  and  cheese.  This  course  is  required  for  graduation  of  all  students  in  agricul- 
ture who  do  not  take  more  extended  courses  in  dairy  husbandry. 

11.  Dairy  bacteriology. — A careful  study  of  the  distribution  of  bacteria  as  deter- 
mined by  a bacteriological  analysis  of  air  in  the  open  field,  dairy  rooms,  and  dairy 
barns  under  different  conditions,  showing  where  and  to  what  extent  milk  may 
become  contaminated  through  the  air  and  from  the  cow  during  process  of  milking 
and  subsequently;  also  how  this  contamination  may  be  largely  avoided  by  proper 
methods.  The  effect  of  bacteria  on  milk  and  on  the  rapidity  with  which  it  sours 
after  being  produced  under  different  degrees  of  cleanliness  and  held  at  different 
temperatures.  The  part  that  bacteria  play  in  the  ripening  of  cream  and  making  of 
butter  and  in  the  manufacture  and  ripening  of  cheese. 

12.  Investigation  and  thesis.— Subject  arranged  with  instructor. 

13.  Fancy  products. — The  manufacture  of  koumiss  and  primost  and  of  different 
grades  of  ice  cream.  A study  of  the  modifications  of  milk. 

THREMMATOLOGY. 

1.  Applied  evolution. — The  principles  of  evolution  as  applied  to  the  improvement  of 
domesticated  animals  and  plants.  Variation,  its  extent  and  causes.  Selection,  and 
its  effect  in  changing  type,  as  illustrated  both  in  nature  and  in  domestication.  The 
nature  of  heredity  and  the  manner  of  its  operation  under  the  influence  of  environ- 
ment. Reflex  action,  habit,  and  instinct,  as  bearing  upon  the  question  of  the 
inheritance  of  acquired  characters.  The  origin,  correlation,  and  disappearance  of 
characters.  The  laws  of  frequency  and  regression  as  bearing  upon  achievements 
that  may  be  confidently  expected. 

2.  Investigation  and  thesis. 

VETERINARY  SCIENCE. 

1.  Anatomy  and  physiology. — The  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the  domestic  animals, 
diseases  of  the  bony  structure,  and  lameness.  The  instruction  is  given  by  lectures, 
aided  by  demonstrations  with  use  of  skeletons  and  of  other  apparatus,  as  follows: 
Dr.  Auzoux’s  complete  model  of  the  horse,  which  is  in  97  pieces  and  exhibits  3,000 
details  of  structure;  papier-mache  model  of  the  horse’s  foot,  the  teeth  of  the  horse, 
and  dissections  of  animals.  This  work  is  supplemented  with  the  study  of  text- 
books. 

2.  Veterinary  materia  medica. — This  subject,  which  treats  of  the  agents  for  the  cure 
of  disease  or  injury,  and  for  the  preservation  of  health  among  domestic  animals,  is 
taught  by  lectures  and  text-books,  illustrated  by  specimens  of  the  drugs  used  in  vet- 
erinary practice.  The  compounding  of  medicines  also  receives  attention. 

3.  Theory  and  practice  of  veterinary  medicine  and  surgery. — This  subject  is  taught  by 
lectures  and  text-books  on  the  diseases  of  domestic  animals,  and  is  illustrated  with 
specimens  of  morbid  anatomy  and  by  observations  and  practice  at  the  free  clinics. 
The  latter  are  held  at  the  veterinary  infirmary  once  a week.  The  students  assist  in 
the  operations,  and  thus  obtain  a practical  knowledge  of  the  subject.  Dissections 
and  post-mortem  examinations  are  made  as  cases  present  themselves. 

SECONDARY  EDUCATION  IN  AGRICULTURE. 

The  movement  for  the  establishment  of  secondary  courses  of  instruc- 
tion in  agiiculture  has  received  a new  impetus  from  the  action  of  the 
State  of  Wisconsin  in  providing’  for  the  establishment  of  county  agrri- 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


449 


cultural  high  schools.  An  account  of  the  movement  for  the  establish- 
ment of  these  schools  in  Wisconsin  is  given  in  the  following  paper  by 
Prof.  W.  A.  Henry,  dean  of  the  College  of  Agriculture  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin: 

SECONDARY  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION  IN  WISCONSIN. 

The  recent  action  of  the  Dunn  County  and  the  Marathon  County  boards  in  pro- 
viding county  agricultural  schools  is  of  such  unusual  importance  to  this  Common- 
wealth that  due  cognizance  should  be  taken  of  the  same  by  all  good  citizens  interested 
in  educational  advancement.  The  beginning  of  this  movement  reaches  back  many 
years.  Sixteen  years  ago  the  regents  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  becoming  dis- 
satisfied with  the  small  attendance  of  bona  fide  agricultural  students  at  the  univer- 
sity, appointed  a committee  to  consider  the  best  means  of  bringing  about  a change. 
As  chairman  of  that  committee  William  F,  Vilas  prepared  a report  which  was 
adopted  by  the  board,  and  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  what  is  now  known  as  the 
short  course  in  agriculture.  The  object  of  this  course  was  to  take  young  men  directly 
from  the  farm  and  give  them  intensely  practical  training  in  agricultural  lines,  and 
then  return  them  to  the  farm  to  make  use  of  what  they  might  have  learned  at  the 
university.  From  an  insignificant  beginning  this  course  of  instruction  has  grown 
until  it  now  has  crowded  the  university  accommodations  to  the  utmost,  with  inabil- 
ity to  accommodate  all  who  seek  instruction  in  some  lines.  To  shut  out  nonresident 
attendance,  the  fees  have  been  made  practically  prohibitory  to  those  coming  from 
other  States. 

Thoughtful  educators  and  others  interested  in  the  intellectual  development  of  our 
State  have  for  some  time  past  been  impressed  with  the  fact  that  it  was  simply  out  of 
the  question  for  the  university  to  attempt  to  provide  instruction  in  elementary  agri- 
culture for  all  that  needed  such  instruction,  or  even  for  those  who  might  come  to  the 
university  for  that  purpose.  Thousands  of  young  men  should  receive  such  training 
annually,  and  such  numbers  could  not  be  accommodated  at  any  one  central  point 
without  incurring  expense  for  such  instruction  entirely  beyond  the  powers  of  the 
State  to  meet.  Moreover,  it  is  the  function  of  the  university  to  impart  the  highest 
form  of  instruction  rather  than  to  undertake  elementary  work  in  educational  lines. 
Up  to  the  present  time  there  has  been  no  place  aside  from  the  university  where  the 
young  farmer  could  gain  any  training  helpful  in  preparing  himself  for  his  future 
vocation.  The  city  schools  do  uot  provide  suitable  training  in  many  particulars  for 
those  who  intend  to  live  upon  the  farm.  Urban  educational  effort  is  along  urban 
lines  toward  urban  conditions,  and  does  rot  recognize  in  any  way  the  vast  fund  of 
useful  knowledge  relating  to  the  country  and  to  country  life.  The  farmer  boy 
attending  the  village  or  city  high  school  is  being  educated  away  from  the  farm  rather 
than  toward  the  farm,  with  all  its  possibilities  for  a useful  life.  To  meet  the  wants 
of  the  large  number  of  rural  young  folk  who  desire  to  secure  some  higher  education 
than  is  afforded  by  the  district  school,  and  yet  desire  to  keep  in  touch  with  farm  life 
and  farm  conditions,  some  form  of  secondary  agricultural  schools  seems  imperative. 

To  understand  the  subject  historically  in  Wisconsin,  it  is  necessary  at  this  point  to 
take  up  another  line  of  educational  effort.  We  have  in  our  State  seven  normal 
schools,  with  an  attendance  of  about  2,200  pupils.  Great  as  is  this  number,  it  is 
unfortunate  to  report  that  the  graduates  of  these  schools  have  not  to  any  extent  gone 
into  the  rural  schools  as  teachers.  Even  those  who  leave  the  normal  schools  before 
graduation  do  not  supply  in  any  large  measure  the  demands  for  trained  teachers  made 
by  the  country  schools.  As  a consequence  the  5,000  rural  schools  in  Wisconsin  have 
been  largely  without  specially  trained  teachers  in  the  past.  There  recently  arose 
the  thought  of  establishing  county  training  schools  for  teachers,  and  the  Wisconsin 

s.  Doc.  10rt 29 


450 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


legislature  of  1899  enacted  a law  permitting  two  counties,  but  not  more,  to  found 
county  training  schools  for  teachers  and  provided  that  if  these  fulfilled  certain 
requirements  they  should  each  be  allowed  to  draw  $1,250  annually  from  the  State 
treasury.  Marathon  and  Dunn  counties  were  the  first  to  apply  for  the  benefits  of  this 
act  and  thereby  secured  the  State  appropriation.  From  their  inception  these  schools 
have  been  a success  in  training  teachers  who  afterwards  teach  in  the  country  district 
schools.  So  pleased  was  the  State  at  the  success  of  the  two-county  training  schools 
for  teachers  that  the  legislature  of  1901  doubled  the  State  allowance,  making  it  $2,500 
annually  to  each  school,  and  authorized  the  establishment  of  four  additional  county 
training  schools  for  teachers,  making  the  number  allotted  six  in  all.  Six  such  schools 
are  now  in  operation.  The  legislature  of  1901  further  provided  that  after  that  year 
all  school-teachers  should  be  examined  in  the  elements  of  agriculture. 

The  reader  who  may  have  followed  this  presentation  thus  far  will  readily  see  how 
naturally  and  easily  the  next  step  in  our  educational  development  has  been  taken. 
The  overcrowded  condition  of  the  college  of  agriculture  at  the  university  in  its 
elementary  work,  the  wonderful  success  of  the  novel  idea  of  county  normal  schools 
for  rural  teachers  and  the  requirements  of  examination  of  all  teachers  in  the  elements 
of  agriculture  have  brought  us  forward  to  a point  where  a further  move  is  essential 
to  the  rounding  out  of  a rational  system  of  education  for  our  Commonwealth. 

In  December,  1898,  State  Superintendent  L.  D.  Harvey,  in  a paper  before  the  State 
Teachers’  Association  in  Milwaukee,  brought  to  the  attention  of  educators  the  sub- 
ject of  county  agricultural  schools.  The  legislature  of  1899  directed  the  superin- 
tendent of  public  instruction  to  investigate  and  report  upon  the  methods  of  instruction 
in  manual  training  and  the  theory  and  art  of  agriculture  in  other  countries  and  States. 
Superintendent  Harvey’s  report  on  this  matter  covers  83  pages  of  interesting  data. 
Everything  was  now  ready  for  the  final  move,  which  was  made  without  serious 
difficulty,  there  being  a surprising  agreement  of  our  legislators  as  to  its  necessity  and 
expediency.  Superintendent  Harvey  prepared  a bill  providing  for  the  establishment 
of  county  schools  of  agriculture  and  domestic  science.  A digest  of  the  law  (chapter 
288,  Laws  of  1901)  is  as  follows: 

Section  1.  The  county  board  of  any  county  is  authorized  to  establish  and  maintain 
“ a county  school  of  agriculture  and  domestic  economy.” 

Section  2 provides  for  a county  school  board  to  control  such  school. 

Sections  3 and  4 provide  for  two  counties  to  unite  in  a joint  agricultural  school. 

Section  5 makes  the  county  treasurer  the  ex-officio  treasurer  of  the  board. 

Section  6.  In  all  county  schools  of  agriculture  and  domestic  economy  organized 
under  the  provisions  of  this  act,  instruction  shall  be  given  in  the  elements  of  agri- 
culture, including  instruction  concerning  the  soil,  plant  life,  and  the  animal  life  of 
the  farm;  a system  of  farm  accounts  shall  also  be  taught;  instruction  shall  also  be 
given  in  manual  training  and  domestic  economy,  and  such  other  subjects  as  may  be 
prescribed. 

Section  7.  Each  such  school  shall  have  connected  with  it  a tract  of  land  suitable 
for  purposes  of  experiment  and  demonstration,  and  not  less  than  3 acres  in  area. 

Section  8.  The  schools  organized  under  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  be  free  to 
inhabitants  of  the  county  or  counties  contributing  to  their  support,  who  shall  be 
qualified  to  pursue  this  course  of  study,  provided  they  shall  have  at  least  the  quali- 
fications required  for  completion  of  the  course  of  study  for  common  schools.  When- 
ever students  of  advanced  age  desire  admission  to  the  school  during  the  winter 
months  in  sufficient  number  to  warrant  the  organization  of  special  classes  for  their 
instruction  such  classes  shall  be  organized  and  continued  for  such  time  as  their 
attendance  may  make  necessary. 

Section  9 provides  that  the  State  superintendent  shall  render  assistance,  and,  “with 
the  advice  of  the  dean  of  the  college  of  agriculture  of  the  State  University,”  he  shall 
prescribe  the  courses  of  study  to  be  pursued  and  determine  the  qualifications  required 
of  the  teachers  employed  in  such  schools. 


Senate  Doc.  No.  104. 


Plate  XLIII. 


Fig.  1 .—Agricultural  Education— New  Main  Building  of  the  Marathon  County 
School  of  Agriculture  and  Domestic  Economy. 


Fig.  2.— Agricultural  Education— New  Main  Building  of  the  Dunn  County 
School  of  Agriculture  and  Domestic  Economy. 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 


451 


Section  10  provides  that  a school  complying  with  the  provisions  of  the  law  may  be 
placed  on  the  approved  list  of  county  schools  of  agriculture  and  domestic  economy. 
The  secretary  of  such  school  shall  report  annually  the  condition  of  the  school  to  the 
State  superintendent,  setting  forth  the  cost  of  the  school,  character  of  the  work  done, 
number  of  teachers  employed,  etc.  If  the  State  superintendent  is  satisfied  that  the 
school  is  up  to  grade,  he  shall  certify  the  same  to  the  secretary  of  state,  who  shall  pay 
over  to  such  school  a sum  equal  to  one-half  the  amount  actually  expended  for 
instruction  in  such  school,  provided  that  the  total  amount  so  expended  shall  not 
exceed  $5,000  in  any  one  year.  But  two  schools  can  draw  State  aid  under  this  act. 

This  allows  a sum  not  exceeding  $2,500  to  be  turned  over  by  the  State  to  each  of 
the  two  county  schools  allowed  under  this  act. 

Marathon  and  Dunn,  the  two  counties  which  were  first  to  nave  county  teachers’ 
training  schools  under  the  law  of  1899,  are  the  first  to  avail  themselves  of  the  law 
above  summarized.  When  it  is  known  that  both  these  counties  are  located  in  the 
newer  parts  of  our  State,  it  will  be  realized  that  “push  and  progress ” is  the  watch- 
word of  these  ambitious  people.  Having  learned  from  direct  observation  the  merits 
of  county  normal  schools,  these  counties  have  gone  a step  further  and  completed 
their  educational  system  by  arranging  for  county  schools  of  agriculture  and  domestic 
economy. 

The  Marathon  County  School  of  Agriculture  and  Domestic  Economy,  located  at 
Wausau,  Wis.,  was  opened  October  6,  1902.  (PI.  XL1II,  fig.  1)  The  buildings  and 
equipment  provided  for  this  school  cost  $20,000.  The  school  grounds  cover  6 acres. 
The  course  of  study  for  boys  includes  soils,  plants,  animal  husbandry,  rural  archi- 
tecture, blacksmith  ing,  carpentry,  and  mechanical  drawing.  The  course  of  study  for 
girls  includes  cooking,  laundering,  sewing,  floriculture,  and  home  management  and 
decoration.  Both  courses  include  English  language  and  literature,  United  States 
history,  civil  government,  and  commercial  arithmetic  with  farm  accounts.  Tuition 
is  free  to  students  living  in  Marathon  County.  The  cost  of  board  and  rooms  runs 
from  $2.50  to  $3.  On  November  26,  1902,  this  school  was  reported  to  have  62  stu- 
dents— 15  boys  and  47  girls.  The  average  age  of  the  students  was  16  years.  The 
principal  of  the  school  is  R.  B.  Johns,  a graduate  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin. 

The  Dunn  County  School  of  Agriculture  and  Domestic  Science  is  located  at  Menom- 
onie.  (PI.  XLIII,  fig  2.)  This  school  is  centrally  located  in  the  county  and  is 
equipped  with  a fine  brick  main  building,  erected  by  the  county  at  a cost  of  $16,000, 
for  the  joint  use  of  this  school  and  the  county  teachers’  training  school,  and  a frame 
building  for  shop  work,  which,  with  grounds  surrounding  the  school,  cost  $5,000. 
The  farm  work  is  done  on  the  county  asylum  farm  1 mile  distant  from  the  school. 

The  course  of  study  for  boys  includes  instruction  regarding  soils,  fertilizers,  plant 
life,  horticulture,  field  crops,  animal  husbandry,  dairying,  poultry,  economic  insects, 
farm  accounts,  blacksmithing  and  other  metal  work,  carpentry,  and  rural  architecture. 

The  course  of  study  for  girls  includes  work  in  sewing,  cooking,  home  economy  and 
management,  drawing  and  designing,  domestic  hygiene,  chemistry  of  foods,  dairy- 
ing, poultry,  farm  accounts,  and  horticulture. 

Both  courses  include  studies  in  United  States  history,  civil  government,  library 
readings,  English,  and  elementary  science. 

Only  two  years  will  be  required  to  complete  the  full  course  for  either  boys  or  girls, 
and  shorter  courses  may  \>e  pursued. 

Tuition  is  free  to  students  living  in  Dunn  County.  Others  will  pay  $25  per  year, 
except  that  the  first  ten  students  from  other  counties  will  be  admitted  for  the  first 
year  on  the  payment  of  only  $10  each. 

Students  may  find  board  and  rooms  in  private  families  in  Menomonie  at  prices 
ranging  from  $2.25  to  $3.75  per  week.  Students  can  board  themselves  for  about  $2 
per  week. 

The  school  opened  October  20,  1902,  and  by  December  44  students  had  registered — 
32  boys  and  12  girls — of  an  average  age  of  18?  years.  This  number  has  since 


452 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


increased.  They  are  from  country  schools,  with  few  exceptions.  The  principal  of 
the  school  is  Dr.  K.  C.  Davis,  a graduate  of  the  Kansas  Agricultural  College  and 
recently  horticulturist  at  the  West  Virginia  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 

State  Superintendent  Harvey,  who  has  watched  both  these  efforts  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  to  whose  credit  the  conception  of  the  county  agricultural  schools  in  Wis- 
consin must  ever  stand,  states  that  there  will  be  required  in  the  county  training 
school  for  teachers  2 teachers  and  in  the  county  agricultural  school  3 teachers  as  a 
minimum.  In  the  agricultural  school  there  will  be  needed  1 principal,  who  will 
teach  branches  of  agriculture,  1 teacher  of  manual  training,  1 teacher  of  domestic 
economy.  Each  will  teach  some  academic  branch  in  addition. 

As  all  teachers  in  the  rural  schools  must  now  pass  examination  in  the  elements  of 
agriculture,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  union  of  these  two  branches  of  education  in  one 
school  is  a wise  one.  Mr.  Harvey  states  that  pupils  from  the  rural  schools  who  have 
completed  the  course  of  study  provided  for  such  schools  will  doubtless  be  admitted 
to  these  agricultural  schools;  that  their  training  here  should  be  covered  in  a two 
years’  course. 

If  the  experiments  in  Dunn  and  Marathon  counties  prove  successful,  no  doubt 
other  counties  will  likewise  establish  county  agricultural  schools,  and  the  system 
will  gradually  spread  over  the  State.  The  wisdom  of  experimenting  with  the  county 
training  school  system  by  allowing  only  two  schools  at  first  and  later  following  along 
the  same  lines  for  agricultural  schools  is  to  be  highly  commended.  The  State  is 
experimenting  along  the  best  lines  of  educational  effort,  and  the  people  are  gradually 
being  educated  to  new  and  important  changes,  which,  if  wrought  too  suddenly,  might 
bring  dissatisfaction  and  revulsion. 

If  the  system  of  county  agricultural  schools  shall  gradually  extend  over  the  State, 
the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  there  can  be  a material  rise  in  the  grade  of  scholar- 
ship required  for  the  admission  of  short-course  students  to  the  university.  When 
this  comes  about,  the  university  will  receive  graduates  from  the  county  agricultural 
schools  and  give  to  such  advanced  agricultural  training.  It  will  relegate  to  the 
county  schools  much  of  the  elementary  work  which  it  is  now  doing.  Among  its 
other  functions,  it  will  prepare  teachers  for  the  county  agricultural  schools  and  give 
to  such  young  men  as  wish  a higher  degree  of  agricultural  training  than  they  can 
secure  in  the  county  schools. 

The  farmers’  sons  and  daughters  will  now  have  near  at  home  schools  specially 
devoted  to  their  interests,  helpful  to  them  in  their  future  farm  life.  In  the  judgment 
of  the  writer,  the  addition  of  county  training  schools  for  teachers  and  county  agricul- 
tural schools  rounds  out  our  educational  system  in  Wisconsin  in  a symmetrical  and 
complete  manner.  No  class  of  people  or  interests  in  the  State  are  longer  left  uncared 
for  educationally.  City  children  are  educated  in  their  way  for  the  city,  and  country 
children  are  educated  for  country  life.  Much  remains,  of  course,  to  be  done  in  the 
way  of  perfecting  the  system,  but  the  main  lines  are  now  properly  laid.  Wisconsin 
is  the  first  State  in  the  Union  to  provide  for  secondary  agricultural  education  by  a 
system  of  county  schools  specially  designed  to  meet  the  needs  of  farmers’  sons  and 
daughters. 

AGRICULTURAL  COURSES  IN  TOWN  HIGH  SCHOOLS. 

To  aid  in  the  movement  for  the  organization  of  secondary  courses 
in  agriculture,  the  committee  on  methods  of  teaching  agriculture  of 
the  Association  of  American  Agricultural  Colleges  and  Experiment 
Stations  made  a report  on  this  subject  to  the  convention  of  the  associa- 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION.  453 


tion,  held  at  Atlanta,  Ga.,  in  October,  1902.  That  portion  of  this 
report  which  relates  to  the  public  high  schools  is  given  below: 

In  addition  to  provision  for  instruction  in  agriculture  in  connection  with  the  col- 
leges and  in  special  agricultural  high  schools  the  teaching  of  agriculture  should  be 
introduced  into  the  public  high  schools  in  or  near  the  rural  communities.  There 
are  many  villages  and  cities  in  the  United  States  which  are  dependent  on  the  farms 
surrounding  them  for  their  commercial  prosperity,  if  not  for  their  very  existence. 
The  high  schools  maintained  in  these  places  draw  their  students  largely  from  the 
farms.  There  is  good  reason  why  communities  of  this  kind  should  seek  through 
their  schools  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  industry  to  which  they  owe  so  much. 
They  should  at  least  cooperate  with  the  surrounding  rural  communities  to  secure  for 
the  farmers’  children  technical  education  in  agriculture  parallel  to  the  education  in 
commercial  business  and  mechanic  arts  which  many  of  the  city  high  schools  are 
now  offering  to  their  students. 

As  previously  stated,  the  high-school  system  of  the  United  States  has  been  rapidly 
developed  in  the  past  few  years  in  the  direction  of  broadening  the  courses  in  natural 
science  and  industrial  arts  and  in  the  provision  for  numerous  elective  courses  in 
these  and  other  subjects.  While  it  continues  to  supply  college  preparatory  courses 
for  the  limited  number  of  students  intending  to  pursue  their  school  career  beyond 
the  high  school,  its  chief  business  is  to  educate  the  nine  out  of  every  ten  of  its  students 
who  are  to  step  from  its  halls  into  active  life.  In  our  largest  and  wealthiest  cities 
this  change  of  aim  of  the  high  school  has  led  to  the  establishment  not  only  of  numer- 
ous courses  in  the  classics,  modern  languages,  natural  sciences,  mathematics,  history, 
and  political  economy,  but  also  of  separate  high  schools  with  elaborate  courses  in 
business  forms  and  mechanic  arts.  The  smaller  cities  are  striving  to  follow  in  the 
same  path  as  far  as  their  means  will  permit. 

Agriculture  has  thus  far  been  almost  entirely  neglected  in  the  high-school  pro- 
grammes, and  it  is  high  time  that  the  friends  of  agricultural  education  should  make 
a systematic  effort  to  have  the  claims  of  this  fundamental  industry  acknowledged 
and  satisfied  in  the  curricula  of  the  public  high  schools.  Since  successful  agriculture 
is  essential  to  the  prosperity  and  well-being  of  urban  as  well  as  rural  communities, 
there  should  be  cooperation  between  country  districts,  villages,  cities,  and  the  States 
to  provide  the  means  for  the  maintenance  of  agricultural  courses  in  the  high  schools. 
As  a practical  measure  it  is  believed  that  such  courses  may  be  added  to  those  already 
existing  in  many  high  schools  by  the  addition  of  a single  teacher,  who  should  be  an 
agricultural  college  graduate,  to  the  teaching  force  already  supplied.  The  expense 
of  maintaining  this  teacher  and  his  equipment  may  properly  be  shared  by  the  State, 
the  village,  or  city  maintaining  the  high  school,  and  the  country  district  from  which 
the  pupils  from  the  farms  are  drawn  to  this  school.  The  State  may  properly  aid  this 
movement  by  offering  a stated  sum  annually  to  high  schools  maintaining  agricultural 
courses.  Already  many  small  townships  are  paying  the  tuition  of  pupils  attending 
high  schools  in  neighboring  townships,  and  this  system  should  be  extended  with 
the  proviso  that  such  tuition  fees  paid  for  students  desiring  agricultural  courses 
should  be  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of  agricultural  courses.  The  balance  neces- 
sary to  maintain  these  courses  will,  it  is  believed,  be  cheerfully  paid  by  the  villages 
or  cities  maintaining  the  high  schools  as  soon  as  they  realize  that  such  expenditure 
is  in  the  nature  of  an  investment,  the  returns  from  which  in  the  way  of  better  and 
more  abundant  agricultural  products  will  be  certain  and  remunerative. 

In  order  that  it  may  be  apparent  that  agricultural  courses  may  be  offered  in  the 
high  schools  without  any  violent  or  radical  reorganization  of  existing  programmes 


454 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


for  such  schools,  a number  of  tentative  schedules  for  such  courses  are  presented  here- 
with along  with  various  courses  already  existing  in  high  schools  in  different  parts  of 
the  country.  An  examination  of  numerous  high-school  programmes  has  revealed  a 
very  great  variety  in  their  courses  as  regards  the  number  of  different  branches  and 
the  amount  of  time  devoted  to  each  branch  in  any  particular  course.  In  general, 
however,  it  may  be  said  that  the  average  high-school  course  in  this  country  presup- 
poses that  the  student  has  had  an  eight-year  course  in  a primary  school,  where  he 
has  been  taught  reading,  writing,  spelling,  arithmetic,  elements  of  English  grammar 
and  composition,  geography,  and  United  States  history.  The  best  primary  schools 
also  give  some  instruction  in  drawing,  music,  nature  study,  and  woodworking,  or 
sewing  and  cooking. 

The  high-school  course  covers  four  years  and  will  ordinarily  embrace  instruction 
in  algebra,  geometry,  ancient  and  modern  history,  English,  drawing,  and  music, 
together  with  various  combinations  of  Latin,  Greek,  French,  German,  and  the  ele- 
ments of  natural  sciences  (especially  chemistry,  physics,  and  botany).  Whenever 
the  manual  arts  or  the  natural  sciences  are  largely  introduced  into  high-school 
courses  the  practical  effect  is  to  reduce  the  amount  of  time  given  to  the  ancient  and 
modern  languages.  With  improved  instruction  in  English  and  science  the  effect  of 
this  on  the  general  training  of  the  student  is  not  as  marked  as  it  might  otherwise  be, 
and  whatever  the  theoretical  pedagogical  value  of  instruction  in  ancient  or  modern 
languages,  there  is  little  doubt  that  when  a choice  has  to  be  made  between  these 
subjects  and  those  which  relate  directly  to  the  pursuit  by  which  the  pupil  is  to  gain 
his  livelihood,  it  will  in  most  cases  be  desirable  that  he  shall  choose  the  things 
of  most  direct  benefit  in  his  life  work.  That  it  will  not  always  be  necessary  for 
the  student  of  agriculture  to  entirely  neglect  the  study  of  at  least  one  ancient  or 
modern  language  in  this  high-school  course,  provided  his  tastes  or  attainments  lead 
him  in  that  direction,  may  be  seen  from  examination  of  the  programmes  of  courses 
presented  herewith. 

With  the  introduction  of  agriculture  into  the  high-school  course,  it  is  presumed 
that  the  courses  in  physics,  chemistry,  botany,  and  zoology  will  be  so  shaped  as  to 
form  an  appropriate  introduction  to  the  more  formal  instruction  in  the  different 
branches  of  agriculture,  i.  e.,  agronomy,  zootechny,  dairying,  rural  engineering,  and 
rural  economy.  As  indicated  in  previous  reports  of  this  committee,  we  would  include 
under  agronomy  whatever  is  taught  regarding  climate,  soils,  fertilizers,  and  the  bot- 
any, varieties,  culture,  harvesting,  preservation,  uses,  and  enemies  of  farm  crops; 
under  zootechny,  the  theory  and  practice  of  animal  production,  including  the  breed- 
ing, feeding,  hygiene,  and  management  of  farm  animals;  under  dairying,  the  princi- 
ples and  methods  involved  in  the  handling  and  sale  of  milk  for  consumption  and  in 
the  making  of  butter  and  cheese;  under,  rural  engineering,  principles  and  methods 
involved  in  the  laying  out  of  farms,  and  the  construction  and  use  of  farm  buildings, 
systems  for  water  supply,  irrigation,  drainage,  sewerage,  roads,  and  machinery;  under 
rural  economy,  the  history  of  agriculture,  capital,  labor  systems,  cost  of  production, 
marketing,  records,  accounts,  etc.,  as  related  to  farm  management. 

Beginning  with  the  simpler  forms  of  high-school  courses,  we  present  a programme 
prepared  under  direction  of  the  State  superintendent  of  public  instruction  in  Indiana 
and  recommended  for  use  in  that  State  in  high  schools  where  at  least  two  teachers 
are  employed  exclusively  in  high-school  work,  and  along  with  this  a tentative  agri- 
cultural course  prepared  by  your  committee,  which  presupposes  an  additional  teacher. 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION 


455 


Programme  for  high  schools  in  Indiana. a 

FIRST  YEAR. 


General  course. 

Tentative  agricultural  course. 

Algebra 5 

English 5 

Latin 5 

Physics  or  chemistry 5 

English 5 

Algebra 5 

Plants  and  their  cultivation  (i.  e.,  botany- 

general  and  economic) S 

Physics 5 

SECOND  YEAR. 


Algebra  (one-third  year)... 
Geometry  (two-thirds  year) 

English 

Latin 

History 


5 English S 

5 Algebra \ c 

5 Geometry f 

5 Animals  and  their  management  (i.  e.,  zo- 

5 ology — general  and  economic) 5 

Chemistry 5 


THIRD  YEAR. 


Geometry  (two-thirds  year) 
Elective  b (one-third  year) . 

English 

History 


5 English & 

5 Geometry,  Latin,  or  German & 

5 Agronomy  (with  special  attention  to  local 

5 crops)  

History & 


FOURTH  YEAR. 


Elective  & 5 

Zoology  or  botany 5 

Latin 5 

History 5 


History 5 

Political  economy 5 

Zootechny  and  dairying 5 

Latin  or  German 5 


a With  each  subject  the  number  of  recitation  periods  per  week  is  given. 
b Mathematics,  physical  geography,  oratory,  or  advanced  physiology. 

With  the  introduction  of  agriculture  into  high  schools  of  this  kind  the  division  of 
studies  among  three  teachers  might  be  as  follows: 


A. 

B. 

C. 

English. 

Chemistry. 

Physics. 

Latin. 

Botany. 

Mathematics. 

German. 

Zoology. 

Agriculture. 

History. 

Political  economy. 

Teacher  B should  be  an  agricultural  college  graduate  and  would  ordinarily  be  a man  who  might 
be  principal  of  the  school.  Teachers  A and  C would  ordinarily  be  women. 


As  an  example  of  a high  school  in  a city  of  medium  size,  that  of  Lowell,  Mass, 
(population,  95,000;  chief  industry,  cotton  manufacturing),  has  been  selected. 

Eight  courses  are  offered,  but  only  the  classical,  modern  language,  and  manual- 
training courses,  recommended  as  general  training  courses,  are  given  herewith. 
Studies  in  italics  are  elective. 


456 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS, 


Programme  of  Lowell  ( Mass. ) High  School. a 

FIRST  YEAR. 


Classical  course. 

Modern-language 

course. 

Manual-training  course. 

Tentative  agricultural 
course. 

English 5 

Algebra 5 

Latin 5 

Physical  geography  2\ 

English 5 

Latin 5 

Algebra 5 

Physical  geography.  2| 

English 5 

Algebra 5 

Manual  training  ..  5 

Physical  geography.  2£ 

English 5 

Algebra 5 

Plants  and  their 
cultivation  (i.  e., 
botany— general 
and  economic)  ...  5 
Physics 2£ 

SECOND  YEAR. 


History  and  Eng- 

History and  Eng- 

History and  Eng- 

History and  Eng- 

lish   : 5 

lish  5 

lish  B 

lish  5 

Geometry 5 

Physics 5 

Manual  training  . . 5 

Animals  and  their 

Physics 5 

Geometry 5 

Geometry 5 

management 

Latin  or  French 5 

French 5 

Physics 5 

French 5 

(i.  e.,  zoology — 
general  and  eco- 
nomic)   5 

Cheyiistry 5 

Geometry 5 

French  or  German  or 
Latin  c 5 

THIRD  YEAR. 


History  and  Eng- 
lish  5 

Arithmetic 2| 

Physiology 2i 

Chemistry 2\ 

German 5 

Latin 5 

Astronomy  and  ge- 
ology b 5 


History  and  Eng- 
lish  5 

Arithmetic 2£ 

Physiology 2| 

Chemistry 2\ 

German 5 

French.. i 5 

Astronomy  and  ge- 
ology b 5 


History  and  Eng- 
lish   5 

Manual  training  . . 5 

Arithmetic 2i 

Physiology 2| 

Chemistry 5 

German 5 

French 5 

Astronomy  and  ge- 
ology b 5 


History  and  Eng- 
lish   5 

Agronomy  and  ru- 
ral engin  eering ...  5 

Arithmetic 2£ 

Physiology 2£ 

Chemistry 5 

French  or  German  or 

Latin  c 5 

Astronomy  and  ge- 
ology b 5 


FOURTH  YEAR. 


English 

....  5 

English 

....  5 

English 

5 

English 

5 

History 

....  5 

History 

....  5 

Manual  training. . . 

5 

Zootechny  and 

Chemistry 

....  5 

Chemistry 

....  5 

History 

5 

dairying 

5 

German 

....  5 

German 

....  5 

Chemistry 

5 

History 

5 

Latin 

....  5 

Botany 

....  2h 

German 

5 

Rural  economy  and 

Botany 

....  2 | 

French 

5 

farm  management. 

2* 

Geometry  and  trig- 

Entomology  

2^ 

onometry 

5 

Trigonometry  and 

surveying 

French  or  German  or 

5 

Latin  c 

5 

a With  each  subject  the  number  of  recitation  periods  per  week  is  given. 
bMay  be  taken  the  fourth  year  instead  of  the  third: 

c Whatever  language  is  elected  should  be  continued  through  at  least  two  years. 


Another  example  of  a high  school  in  a city  of  medium  size  has  been  selected,  viz, 
Des  Moines,  Iowa  (population,  62,000),  which  is  in  the  midst  of  a rich  agricultural 
district.  This  illustrates  a course  of  study  in  which  the  elective  system  predominates. 
By  simply  adding  to  the  curriculum  for  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  years  electives 
in  agriculture  a course  of  study  much  better  adapted  to  the  needs  of  pupils  from 
the  rural  districts  could  be  arranged. 


RECENT  PBOGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION.  457 


Programme  of  Des  Moines  (Iowa)  High  School. a 

FIRST  YEAR. 


Present  course  of  study. 


Algebra  

Zoology 

English 

Drawing 

Botany 

Latin 

Phgsical  geography. 
Geology 


Tentative  agricultural  course. 


5 

2* 

3 

2 

2$ 

5 

2s 

2j 


Algebra  

Zoology 

English 

Drawing 

Botany 

Latin 

Physical  geography 
Geology 


5 

2i 

3 

2 

2* 

5 

2s 

2* 


SECOND  YEAR. 


Algebra  

Geometry 

English 

History 

Physiology 

Latin 

Bookkeeping  and  commercial  law. 


•*s 

2s 

5 

2j 

5 

5 


Algebra  

Geometry 

English 

History 

Physiology 

Plants  and  their  cultivation  (i.  e.,  botany — 

general  and  economic) 

Animals andtheir management  (i.  e.,  zoology — 

general  and  economic) 

Latin ^ 

Bookkeeping  and  commercial  law 


2* 

2* 

2* 

5 

2s 

2s 


2i 

5 

5 


THIRD  YEAR. 


Geometry 5 

English 5 

Latin 5 

Greek 5 

German 5 

French 5 

Chemistry 5 

Civics  and  economics 5 

English  history 2| 

American  history 5 


Geometry 5 

English 5 

Agronomy  and  rural  engineering 5 

Latin 5 

Greek 5 

German 5 

French 5 

Chemistry 5 

Civics  and  economics 5 

English  history 2£ 

American  history 5 


FOURTH  YEAR. 


Physics 5 

English 5 

Latin 5 

Greek 5 

German 5 

French 5 

Civics  and  economics 5 

American  history 5 

Trigonometry 2\ 

Astronomy 2£ 


Physics 5 

English 5 

Zootechny  and  dairying 5 

Rural  economy  and  farm  management 2£ 

Latin 5 

Greek 5 

German 5 

French 5 

Civics  and  economics 5 

American  history 5 

Trigonometry 2s 

Astronomy 2£ 


a With  each  subject  the  number  of  recitation  periods  per  week  is  given.  Each  pupil  must  take 
studies  occupying  at  least  15  periods  in  addition  to  English.  Subjects  in  italics  are  elective. 


As  an  example  of  a high  school  in  a large  city,  that  of  Washington,  D.  C.  (popu- 
lation 279,000),  has  been  selected.  In  this  city  there  are  also-  business  and  manual- 
training high  schools  with  elaborate  special  courses.  For  our  present  purpose  the 
tentative  agricultural  course  is  compared  with  the  courses  offered  in  the  general 
high  school. 


458 


REPORT  OF  OFFICE  OF  EXPERIMENT  STATIONS. 


Programme  of  Washington  High  School. a 

FIRST  YEAR. 


Academic  course. 

Scientific  course. 

Tentative  agricultural  course. 

English 5 

History 5 

Algebra 5 

Latin 5 

Drawing 

English 5 

History 5 

Algebra 5 

German 5 

Drawing 

English 5 

Algebra 5 

Plants  and  their  cultivation 
(i.  e.,  botany — general  and 

economic) 5 

Physics 5 

Drawing  or  woodworking. . 

SECOND  YEAR. 

English \ - 

English  history j 

Greek 5 

Geometry 5 

Latin 5 

Physics  or  chemistry 5 

Drawing 

English 1 c 

English  history j 

Geometry 5 

German  or  French 5 

Physics  or  chemistry 5 

Drawing 

English f> 

Geometry 5 

Animals  and  their  manage- 
ment (i.  e.,  zoology — gen- 
eral and  economic) 5 

Chemistry 5 

Drawing  or  woodworking.. 

THIRD  YEAR. 

English 5 

Latin 5 

French 5 

German 5 

Greek 5 

Biology,  or  advanced  chem- 
istry, or  advanced  physics . 5 

Political  economy 5 

Solid  geometry 5 

Trigonometry  and  surveying, 
or  history 5 

English 5 

German  or  French 5 

Biology,  or  advanced  chem- 
istry, or  advanced  physics  . . 5 

French 5 

Political  economy 5 

Solid  geometry 5 

Trigonometry  and  surveying, 
or  history 5 

English 5 

History 5 

Agronomy  and  rural  engi- 
neering  5 

Biology 5 

Trigonometry  and  survey- 
ing   5 

Latin 5 

German 5 

Bookkeeping 5 

Drawing 5 

FOURTH  YEAR. 

English 5 

Latin 5 

Advanced  biology,  or  chem- 
istry, or  physics 5 

Greek 5 

History,  or  analytical  ge- 
ometry and  college  algebra . 5 

French 5 

German 5 

Spanish 5 

English 5 

German  or  French 5 

Advanced  biology,  or  chem- 
istry, or  physics 5 

History,  or  analytical  geome- 
try and  college  algebra 5 

French 5 

Spanish 5 

English 3 

Political  economy 5 

Zootechny  and  dairying 5 

Rural  economics  and  farm 

management 2 

History 5 

Latin 5 

German 5 

Drawing 5 

Bookkeeping 5 

Entomology 5 

ttWith  each  subject  the  number  of  recitation  periods  per  week  is  given.  Each  candidate  fora 
diploma  must  take  studies  occupying  at  least  20  periods,  except  in  the  fourth  year,  when  the  minimum 
requirement  is  18  periods.  Subjects  in  italics  are  elective. 


It  is  believed  that  the  presentation  of  schedules  as  above  justifies  the  assertion  that 
it  is  entirely  practicable  to  adjust  an  agricultural  course  of  high-school  grade  to 
existing  high-school  schedules  and  to  make  this  agricultural  course  fairly  satisfactory 
for  the  purposes  of  general  training,  as  well  as  elementary  instruction  in  the  theory 
and  practice  of  agriculture.  The  graduate  of  such  an  agricultural  course  may  fairly 
be  expected  to  understand  the  scientific  basis  of  improved  agriculture  and  to  have  an 
intelligent  appreciation  of  the  needs  of  a progressive  agriculture.  He  will  then  be  in 
position  to  profit  by  the  results  of  the  investigations  of  the  experiment  stations  and 
by  the  information  regarding  the  progress  of  his  art  which  may  come  to  him  from 
the  njore  intelligent  of  his  neighbors,  farmers’  institutes,  and  good  books  and  jour- 
nals. He  will  be  likely  to  become  an  intelligent  and  progressive  farmer  as  well  as  a 
refined  and  useful  citizen  and  home-maker. 


RECENT  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION 


459 


In  the  present  condition  of  secondary  education  in  this  country  there  is  no  room 
for  dogmatism  regarding  courses  of  study,  but  there  is  every  reason  why  the  friends 
of  agricultural  education  should  assert  their  right  to  be  heard  in  claiming  the 
importance,  desirability,  and  feasibility  of  including  instruction  in  agricultural  sub- 
jects in  high-school  programmes.  Your  committee  has  proceeded  on  the  assumption 
that  the  definite  formulation  of  tentative  secondary  courses  in  agriculture  would  con- 
tribute to  the  more  intelligent  discussion  of  this  important  subject.  If  continued,  it 
may  hereafter  give  more  attention  to  this  subject  and  report  such  further  suggestions 
as  more  extended  study  may  bring  out. 

A.  C.  True, 

T.  F.  Hunt, 

H.  T.  French, 

H.  H.  Wing, 

Committee . 


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for  each  non-returned  or  lost  item. 

Theft,  mutilation,  or  defacement  of  library  materials  can 
be  causes  for  student  disciplinary  action.  All  materials 
owned  by  the  University  of  Illinois  Library  are  the 
property  of  the  State  of  Illinois  and  are  protected  oy 
Article  16B  of  Illinois  Criminal  Law  and  Procedure. 

TO  RENEW,  CALL  (2 1 7)  333-8400. 

University  of  Illinois  Library  at  Urbana-Champaign 


SEP  1 ^ 


When  renewing  by  phone,  write  new  due  dat« 
below  previous  due  date.  LlbZ 


